Piercing the Veil
by TrudyW
Summary: What really happened after Sirius fell through the veil? Will be Slash!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer** : All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators or producers of any media franchise. no copyright infringement is intended.

**Authors Note** : Just a quick taster chapter, I'd normally like it to be somewhat longer but that seemed like a perfect place to stop. This will be Slash and will be a crossover, if you don't like don't read, thanks

Please read and review.

**Piercing the Veil**

Chapter One

Sirius ducked the red blast of the spell that Bellatrix fired his way bringing up his wand to fire a curse back at the insane witch. Suddenly pain blossomed across his chest and he stumbled backwards. He locked eyes with his horrified god-son and watched in anguish as the emerald green gaze was clouded with the pain of impending loss. Regret filled him as his eyes widened in shock, the smile died on his lips, fear and surprise flashed across his features as he felt himself fall through the stone archway of the ancient portal. He shuddered as an ice cold tide flowed through his body and he felt himself float away as blackness encroached upon his vision and all consciousness faded from his battered and broken body.

Sirius had no idea how much time had passed before he struggled up from the black pit within his mind to once more achieve consciousness. At least he thought he was conscious but when he opened his eyes it made no difference. He was pretty sure that his eyes were open, he could feel the muscles in his eyelids moving in response to his commands, but there was no change to the colourless void surrounding him. Feeling panic beginning to rush up inside of him he ruthlessly pushed it back down, it wouldn't help him at all in his current situation, whatever that may be. Auror instincts rushed to the fore and concentrating all of his energy on his other senses he tried to gather any information at all about his location. His ears registered nothing, no sound at all, not even the sound of his own breathing. Touch also registered nothing, he tried to feel if he was laying on a bed but there was no sensation, he simply appeared to be drifting in a void. He tried to reach up, to touch his own face, he felt the muscles in his arms tensing as if to make the necessary movements but nothing more, no sensation of contact through either his hands or the skin of his face.

The panic that he had so ruthlessly suppressed just moments ago came roaring back, fighting free of all constraints. He thrashed wildly, arms and legs flailing at the nothingness that surrounded him, flinging his head back and forth he screamed at the top of his lungs. Nothing happened, he screamed but heard no sound, he thrashed but made contact with nothing, he was trapped inside his own head. Where was he? What had happened? Was anybody there? SOMEBODY HELP ME!

Eventually, all screamed out, Sirius backed himself into a tiny hole deep within his own mind and pulled the door shut behind himself. He had no idea how long he hid, slowly a sense of comfort began to spread its way through his consciousness. Gradually Sirius began to unfold out of his hiding place, he could still see nothing, still hear and feel nothing, but he no longer felt alone. He felt individual presences surrounding him, just a few at first all broadcasting a deep sense of calm. Over time more presences appeared, he could pick out individual feelings from the crowd, some seemed calming, some comforting, some were merely indifferent but none seemed actively hostile. He wanted to speak to whoever was there, call out to them to ask them to help him but he was afraid. Although the broadcast emotions had helped him to regain some measure of control over his fears he could still feel the earlier panic bubbling underneath. His psyche was so damaged by twelve years in Azkaban that he feared to lose even the slightest portion of that control, scared that if he lost it again he might never drag himself back from the brink.

The passage of time was indeterminable in the void in which Sirius floated but slowly he became aware of three individual presences separating out from the rest. Ahead of him the presence was strong, forceful, masculine. By contrast the presences to his left and right were softer, more feminine in feel, one warm and motherly, the other cool and sparkling with curiosity. Sirius began to feel a pull, directing his attention toward the more masculine presence. Pulling his concentration together after what felt like eons in the empty limbo took all the strength left to him but finally he managed it and directed a questioning thought to the beings surrounding him, "what's happening."

Slowly words formed within his mind, "innocent or guilty?"


	2. Chapter 2

Authors Note : A slightly longer chapter for you this time, I'm sure you'll be able to guess the crossover by the end of this chapter but if not all will be revealed in chapter 3.

Chapter two.

Innocent or Guilty, the question rang in Sirius's head. Innocent or Guilty.

His first instinct was to scream INNOCENT! But he caught himself and gave further consideration to the question. In truth even before his time in the void he had had little else to do but think and he had spent a lot of time ruminating upon the events of his life. As much as it shamed him to admit it, looking back through his memories Sirius saw little to be proud of in his behaviour.

True he had rejected the dark leanings of his family, but had he really been any better than his parents, or his brother. He, James and Remus had hit it off from the first day they had all met at Hogwarts, and they had quickly drawn Peter into their inner circle. The small, mousy child had been painfully shy from the outset, Merlin alone knew how he had ever managed to be sorted into Gryffindor, even the Hufflepuffs picked on him. Still, in the ebullient spirit of new beginnings inspired by the start of their Hogwarts school days, the three friends had taken pity on Peter and taken him under their collective wing. Sirius thought that it was probably the last kind act he had ever committed.

He thought back over all the pranks that the marauders had perpetrated against their school mates. Although they had started off as harmless fun, over the years they had developed an edge of cruelty that Sirius hated to think back on now. Cringing Sirius remembered the pranks that Harry had called him on only recently, the incident with werewolf Remus in the Shrieking Shack and the incident with Snape by the edge of the lake. Even when Harry had questioned him on those events Sirius had still been unable to see why it was such a big deal, now he saw the vicious cruelty of the acts and wondered how he could ever have thought them funny.

But the acts of the marauders weren't the only things occupying Sirius's thoughts. He remembered his pride in his master plan to keep James and Lily safe. He remembered how hard he had to fight to persuade them to change their secret keeper. He relived his smug confidence that he could fool the dark lord, that he could keep the Death Eaters running all over creation searching for him whilst the real secret keeper hid in plain sight suspected by no-one. He remembered how his pride had caused the deaths of his best friends and had destroyed Harry's life.

He had had a chance to begin to get to know his god-son over the two years since his escape from Azkaban and he had heard of the life Harry had led with his relatives. The innocent child of his best friend James, and James' beautiful bride Lily had been raised in a cupboard, used as a house elf and as a whipping boy for his elephantine cousin, Dudley. Sirius should have been there, should have put Harry's needs above his own need for vengeance, should have lived up to his responsibilities.

Then Sirius considered the other side of the coin. He thought about twelve years in Azkaban, locked away without trial for a crime he hadn't committed. Years spent locked in a tiny cell in a comfortless prison on a storm swept rock with only the screams of his fellow prisoners and daily visits from Dementors for company. Yes he had sinned, but had he not also atoned for his sins. He thought back on Harry's life, on how his actions had shaped that life, could he ever atone for the wrongs he had done.

Hating himself for the anguish he had caused in the course of his life Sirius whispered the only reply he could find within himself. "Guilty."

As quiet as the words were, volume wasn't needed in this limbo in which Sirius floated. No sooner had the word formed within his mind than huge, black, emotional storm clouds began to gather as the anger of the assembled presences ripped into Sirius. After floating free in a sensation less void, now Sirius felt pain, pain like he had never experienced before in his lifetime. It was pain beyond his worst imagining, as if every cell in his body was being individually Crucio'd. As if sharp hooks had been bound to every nerve ending in his entire body and now he was being disassembled, torn apart one atom at a time.

Sirius screamed, his entire consciousness overtaken by paroxysms of agony ripping through his body. He felt his very being torn asunder, ripped apart on a cellular level as his body began to fragment, dissipating into the void and still he burned with indescribable torment, suffering without end.

"STOP!"

The word crashed into his consciousness with the force of an interplanetary collision. Suddenly his disintegrated body, which had been dissolving back into the ether from whence all life came, slammed back together. His body reintegrated in an instant, the pain was gone but the memory of it remained infused from the very core of his being to the outermost tips of his extremities. The shock was too much for anyone to bear and Sirius retreated once more, walling himself up inside his mind too terrified to face those who stood in judgement upon him.

~~~~~~PTV~~~~~~

A tendril of thought carefully sought out the gaps in the walls built up by Sirius to protect himself. Slowly the tendril wormed its way through the cracks until finally it penetrated through to the cramped space where the dark-haired wizard cowered. Unnoticed it threaded itself through the dishevelled locks and began to pulse with warm, comforting feelings to soothe and heal the damage Sirius had sustained. As the tendril did it's work Sirius started to pay attention to the void around him. He remained walled up away from anything that might cause him further pain, but his senses were extended, trying to understand what was going on around him.

Sensing his renewed interest the voice that had ended the attack spoke again inside all their minds. "Watch!" The voice was softer now but still carried more than enough authority to have all attention focussed on the images that began to scroll through Sirius's head and whatever passed for heads for the other presences.

The images flickered past too quickly for Sirius to assimilate them all, however after some time he began to get the hang of watching the continuous stream and recognised scenes from his own life being laid out for anyone to view. He saw himself as a five year old being punished by his angry mother because he had smiled at a half-blood child encountered during a visit to Diagon Alley. Image after image followed, Sirius being punished for failing to show sufficient pureblood pride, Sirius being praised for exhibiting correct pureblood arrogance. Over time the punishments became harsher and more frequent, while praise became scantier and eventually disappeared entirely as Sirius refused to be brow-beaten and brainwashed by his family into behaviour he knew was wrong.

Sirius watched as his younger self was dispatched to his first year at Hogwarts with threats ringing in his ears of exactly what would happen should he not be sorted into Slytherin and make appropriate friends amongst the pureblood witches and wizards of that house. He saw himself returning to Grimmauld Place at the Christmas break when his parents refused to even speak to him. He watched as House Elves locked him in his room from which all his personal belongings had been removed except for basic clothes and the books and equipment needed for him to complete his holiday homework.

~~~~~~PTV~~~~~~

All future school breaks followed the same pattern with Sirius only allowed out of his room when his parents required his presence to perpetuate the image of a united pureblood family or to try to convince him of the error of his ways. He saw his school years and the pranks pulled by the marauders, he saw as the pranks became increasingly cruel and how their focus narrowed until Snape became their most frequent target. He saw how his life improved at sixteen when he ran away from home and was taken in by the Potters, he saw himself standing tall and proud as best-man at James and Lily's wedding. He saw his fear at finding Peter missing and his anguish at discovering the corpses of his best friends and at being prevented by Hagrid at Dumbledore's orders from taking custody of his orphaned God-son. He saw how his anger, misery and self-hatred were channelled into the misguided attempt to locate Peter Pettigrew, and how his emotions overwhelmed his good sense allowing the rat-like ex-marauder to frame him for Peter's own crimes.

As Sirius saw himself being dragged off to Azkaban he tried to look away, allowing those years to pass by as a blur before his eyes. Living through it once had been enough, he needed no reminder of the depths of despair he had sunk to during that time. After he felt sufficient time had passed he returned his attention to the images, just in time to see his Grim form struggling through the peaks and troughs of that miserable night as he swam the icy waters of the North Sea. Following the progress of his escape he concentrated all his attention on the time he had spent with Harry, wanting to remember every moment with his beloved God-son. Too soon the re-play of his life came to an end as he watched once again the anguished expression on Harry's face as Sirius fell through the stone archway behind the veil and into death's embrace.

Thinking back over all that he had seen Sirius realised that in viewing the events from the outside he had seen things which he had been unaware of the first time around. The most glaring anomalies all seemed to involve Peter Pettigrew, whilst Peter had been his friend, Sirius had always viewed the other man as shy and innocuous, drawn into the marauders pranks but never the instigator. However now he saw that while it may have been that way in the beginning, over time Peter's role had changed. He saw how the younger boy had influenced and manipulated James, Remus and himself encouraging more reckless, dangerous and outright cruel pranks. Whipping up the other boys dislike of Snape into senseless hatred, using them to make himself feel more important by making the Slytherin half-blood's life even harder than it must have been already. Reviewing the scene's before James and Lily went into hiding he began to feel that he had been manipulated there as well. The rat-like Peter planting ideas that Sirius absorbed and developed until he found himself a target for the Death Eaters whilst Peter betrayed his best-friends.

Sunk in misery Sirius could only wallow in despair as he finally understood just how badly he had screwed up his life. Letting his walls drop Sirius laid himself open to any punishment that the surrounding presences felt fit to inflict upon him. He saw now what a disaster his life had been and he had no more will left to fight against their judgement.

"Verdict?"

The voice invaded his mind one more time and Sirius fought the sudden tension in his body as he awaited the return of the all encompassing pain he had endured earlier. However this time the pain did not come, instead the presences around him projected an air of thoughtfulness as they considered all that had been revealed of Sirius' life story. One by one they reached their own conclusions and began to call out their verdicts.

"Innocent!"

"Innocent!"

"Innocent!"

"Innocent!"

"Innocent!"

The calls were intermittent at first but the pace quickly picked up as the rapid-fire voices overlayed one another. Calls of innocent from every direction finally tapered off and Sirius waited in vain for the punishment that never came. The realisation finally broke through and Sirius was stunned by the feelings of warmth and support that the fickle presences now showered upon him.

Eventually however edges of anger began to impinge upon the warm feelings and Sirius tensed anticipating danger. The comforting feelings intensified cocooning Sirius in a warm, safe place from which he could observe the deliberations of the surrounding presences as they debated their next steps.

The debate wasn't carried out in words but in a mixture of thoughts, feelings and images and it took Sirius some time to understand what was going on. However after a while he was able to discern that the anger he had felt was directed not at himself but at those who had sent an innocent man through the veil. Others were arguing that no-one had sent him through, it had been an accident. That apparently did not appease the first group who appeared to consider that that only proved that those tasked with the responsibility for the veil were negligent in their duties. This confused Sirius, he had heard vague stories of the veil hidden deep within the Department of Mysteries but knew nothing of any covenant regarding its use.

It seemed that the comforting presence now protecting Sirius had heard his confusion and information began to form in his mind. Images showing Merlin himself giving control over the portal now known as the veil to the wizarding people which strict instructions regarding its use. It was to be used as an execution device, but only in the most heinous of cases in which proof of guilt was absolute. Veritaserum and various truth spells already existed in that time and so the constraints upon its use were not considered particularly difficult. However over time, as the wizarding world developed and the Ministry of Magic grew laws became more complicated and the use of the veil fell out of favour.

Tuning back into the discussion Sirius found that most considered it a personal insult that an innocent man had been imprisoned for twelve years in a world where so many simple ways of ascertaining guilt or innocence without a shadow of a doubt existed. Eventually a committee was formed to decide upon appropriate measures to ensure such a miscarriage of justice would not be repeated. Sirius got the impression that the race of ethereal beings amongst whom he found himself preferred not to interfere in the lives of more primitive races. However it seemed that witches and wizards were more closely related than most other races and so these beings saw them more as poor relations and considered it their responsibility to guide them in their development.

Once that had been decided Sirius saw that the conversation had turned to himself and what should be done with him. One faction wanted to return him from whence he came, others wanted to keep him safe with them whilst more wanted to find a new place to send him. Sirius was inwardly glad to find the faction in favour of keeping him in this place was quickly shouted down. Although he was in no doubt of their good will he was unsure of his ability to adapt to a bodyless existence such as he was currently experiencing.

After a longer discussion it was decided that returning him was not a feasible option either. The argument that Sirius' life would still be in danger if returned to the same situation he had left carried the day. Sirius tried to argue against that decision but was quickly silenced and the old adage 'Children should be seen and not heard' flashed through his mind. He got the distinct impression that he'd just been instructed to 'keep quiet, mummy and daddy are talking'. Sirius decided against causing a fuss, wherever on earth he was returned to he would still be able to find his way back to Harry, it might just take a little longer.

So it was decided, they would find a new home for Sirius. It seemed that everyone had an idea of where he should be sent and images of incredible places began to flash through the ether. Desert islands, tropical paradises, rustic villages, all kinds of locations were considered. Sirius even thought he saw a village with two suns hanging in the sky above the quaint circular houses, but that was surely impossible. Suddenly a familiar feeling presence flashed an image of a beautiful city, the place appeared to be deserted, dust lay thickly upon every surface. The scene was lit with a softly fluctuating blue-green light, large expanses of stained glass were visible and Sirius felt a definite pull to this place.

All the other images faded away and the beautiful, blue-green city dominated everything. A questioning thought crystalised from one of the watchers, ' The city has been deserted for ten thousand years, he would be alone'.

Slowly the image was populated as people began to appear with the feeling of 'soon'. More images appeared, images of Sirius being healed, being taught all that they could teach him, the idea was clear that by the time Sirius was ready to go the city would no longer be deserted. "What! Wait," Sirius started to object, "why do I need healing, I'm fine, and I finished school. What's going on here?" His protests faded away as the comforting feeling around him rose up and seemed almost to smother him, dragging him down into deep unconsciousness as his body disintegrated once more only for the ethereal beings to begin putting him back together, back the way he should have been if Azkaban had never happened.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note :** Thank you for your review **joniskpelare**, got it in one. Here's chapter three, he'll actually arrive next chapter, I finally figured out the first thing he's going to do when he arrives today and that gave me the impetus to finally get this chapter finished. Please read and review that always helps speed the writing process.

**Chapter 3**

As one the team disassembling Sirius stopped their work and briefly conferred on an issue that was causing them some concern. Finally reaching a consensus their spokespresence formulated a question. 'What are we to do about his magical disability?'

The warm comforting presence, Sirius' self-appointed guardian angel focussed sharply on the words 'What disability?'

Confused the team working on Sirius conferred for an instant before conjuring a series of images from the earlier re-play of Sirius' life, each image showing him performing magic through the use of his wand. Sharp confusion replaced the normal comforting feeling and the question was conveyed easily to all still listening in, 'How did I not notice that? Why is a full grown man still using a training tool?'

The sparklingly curious presence now took an interest in the proceedings. Tuning into Sirius' unconscious mind it began to leaf through his memories searching for a reason why he would continue to use a wand into his teens and beyond. Thoughts and images began to form as the curious one kept up a running commentary on her findings. 'See the damage here, the scarring of the magical pathways, he should be a powerful wizard but his magical growth has been stunted by over use of his training tool, his wand.' She searched deeper to find out why someone would do something so harmful. Curiosity turned to shock as Sirius' deeply ingrained belief that every wizard needed to use a wand to channel and focus their magic was uncovered.

'How did this happen?' the outcry rose up and the one who had been known as Merlin was pushed to the fore. Merlin had been the last of their kind to spend significant time amongst the wizarding peoples of Earth. He made all his memories of that time available for anyone who wanted to view them. He showed how he had taught the wizarding world to use wands as a training tool to channel the magic for young children as they first learned to focus their will and bend the magic to do their biding. He then showed the clear teaching that as children approached adolescence they should cease to use the wands as otherwise they risked irreparable damage to the pathways of magic within the body.

At some point in the intervening years those teachings had been lost. It may have been through laziness, after all magic was easier with a wand, even if it stunted the user's magical strength. Or maybe someone had tried to gain an advantage for their own line by keeping the knowledge secret. However it had happened all understanding of correct teaching methods had been lost and generations of witches and wizards had suffered damage and reduced magical power as a result.

'Fix him!' came the instant decision and the team working on Sirius set to with a will. Their work load had just doubled but they were determined to still see to it that all damage to the wronged wizard would be repaired in good time to send him to his new home at the appointed moment.

Sirius struggled up from the depths once again, this time though it was easier, he was lying in a soft warm bed, 'whoa! That was some dream' he thought as he snuggled deeper into his pillow. Opening his eyes he looked around, sitting up he ran his hands over the familiar carved headboard. The walls were still covered with all his old Gryffindor banners and posters of scantily clad muggle girls draped artistically over a range of motorcycles covered practically every square inch of wall space. Golden light spilled through the tall window framed by long velvet drapes, augmented by the soft glow of candles burning steadily in the chandelier. This was his room, he was home.

Sliding his hand beneath the pillows he reached for his wand, surprised he groped further, where was that wand. Throwing the pillows aside he frantically searched the head of the bed for the slim wooden stick that he always kept close. Desperately he plunged his hand down behind the mattress before virtually falling to the floor to grope around beneath the bed. Where the hell was that wand, without it he was helpless, at the mercy of any wizard who wished him harm, and most wizards wished him harm! "Where is it!"

"You won't find it." A calm voice broke in on his frantic search and Sirius whipped around to see who had spoken.

"Who are you?" Sirius asked the plump, motherly woman who stood in the middle of his bedroom softly smiling at him.

"Don't you recognise me?" a familiar feeling of comfort and safety washed over Sirius and he scrambled to his feet.

"You, you were in my dream." He gasped, stunned.

"My name is Khala, we created this place from your memories. We hoped you might be more comfortable in a familiar environment." The woman, Khala stood placidly, still projecting an air of calm.

"You created this place?" Sirius repeated, struggling to understand. Looking back over to the window he considered what he was seeing. The warm golden light flooded through the window, the light in this area of London was never that bright, that clean. Pushing himself to his feet he crossed the room and looked out. Instead of the rundown square with its patch of bedraggled grass, surrounded by grimy houses, some with broken windows and piles of trash out front he saw a clean, glowing nothingness.

"Well, at least the view is an improvement," he joked turning back to face his visitor.

Khala gave a small smile before gesturing towards the two shabby armchairs flanking the empty fireplace. "Shall we?"

Sirius nodded his agreement and waited for his guest to seat herself before taking the remaining chair. "So, I'm assuming that that wasn't a dream." He gestured vaguely in the air before settling his elbows on the arms of the chair, hands clasped in front of him.

"No, not a dream. We have had a team working to repair your body, and as far as possible your mind..." Khala quelled Sirius with a single glance as he tried to interrupt her.

"Your body was severely damaged and so was your mind, we have repaired all that we could and we have given you all the information we can without over-taxing your brain..." again Khala had to break off to quell Sirius with a glare as he tried to interrupt.

"We do not have a lot of time before you go on to your new home, and I am here to answer what questions I can." Khala settled back in her seat with an expectant expression on her face.

Sirius waited a moment to see if the woman had anything further to say. Deciding she had apparently finished he cocked an eyebrow at her, "May I speak now?"

"You may," Khala inclined her head gracefully, a sly smile quirking her lips for a fleeting moment.

Sirius took an instant to muster his thoughts before speaking. Finally, taking a deep breath, he asked "you people keep saying I'm damaged, what do you mean by that? And where the hell is my wand?" Despite the deep breath Sirius' frustrations quickly broke through his attempt at calm.

"Ahhh! I should have guessed those would be your main concerns, and to a certain extent they are linked. We have repaired the damage to your body and mind caused by twelve years in Azkaban. Poor nutrition, cold, damp cells and hard, stone floors to sleep on, not to mention regular visits from the Dementors had all taken their toll physically and on your sanity. We've repaired that damage, returned you to the state you should have been in without having endured those hardships. But your magic has also been damaged by excessive wand use, although you have actually suffered less in this respect than many adult wizards and witches alive today due to your time in that horrible place." Khala explained as calmly as she could, although just thinking about the terrible state Sirius had been in when he fell through the veil made her so angry. She couldn't help but wish that she had been one of those chosen to return briefly to Earth to reinforce the laws and teachings that the wizarding world appeared to have lost or abandoned.

"Excessive wand use? What the blazes are you talking about woman. My parents brought me my wand when I was eleven, just like every other child in our world. I used it during term time only throughout my school years at Hogwarts, and once I reached my magical majority I was able to use it whenever needed." Sirius was both angry and confused, what the hell was this woman talking about. Everyone knew that wizarding folk needed to use their wands to do magic, how could usual use like that be considered excessive. It wasn't like he was one of those lumps you occasionally heard about who sat all day in their armchairs and never lifted a finger unless it was to use their wand or feed their faces. It happened to some muggle borns, whilst most tended to do more by hand than your average wizard raised, some overcompensated. After growing up without knowledge of magic they let it take over their lives until they seemed to forget how to do anything for themselves and would literally starve to death if you took away their wands. "I've never abused my wand."

"Calm down Sirius, let me try to explain." Khala kept her tone even, what she was about to say would undermine the foundations of Sirius' belief system and she knew that would be hard for the black-haired wizard to deal with.

"One of my, let's call him a colleague, lived in the wizarding world a long time ago, before Hogwarts was even founded. He was known as Merlin, you may have heard of him?" Khala paused, waiting as Sirius acknowledged the question with a wry twist of his lips. Yes he'd heard of him, he'd been swearing by his name since his teens. "He taught the wizards and witches of his day how to use their magic, to make their lives better. He showed them how to teach their children to use wands from the age of around seven years to focus and channel the defuse magic in the air around them. By using the wands in the formative years the magical pathways are strengthened but they were taught to slowly reduce wand use as the children reached the age of eleven or twelve so that by the time they were fourteen years old they no longer needed a wand and all magic was done wandlessly. Somehow these teachings have become perverted in your society and in all wizarding societies on Earth. Children aren't being taught magic until much later and so they need to work harder to open up the channels. Then continuing wand use after magical maturity leads to scaring of the magical channels. Scar tissue doesn't flex and stretch like healthy tissue, it thickens the walls of the channels restricting the flow of the magic leading to reduced magical power."

"That can't be right!" Sirius was emphatic in his denial. "How could everything I've been taught, everything everybody I've ever known has been taught be so wrong? How could something so important be 'forgotten'"

"That we don't know, someone may have started rumours to scare people into changing the way that children were taught. They may have intended to stick to the proper way themselves to give themselves an advantage over others. Whatever it was the knowledge has been lost for generations from what we have been able to find out."

Desperation coloured Sirius' voice now. "What about Harry? He's fifteen, nearly sixteen, is it too late for him, can you help him?" Sirius threw himself to his knees at Khala's feet, reaching for her hands in supplication. "Dumbledore has some prophesy that says that Harry has to kill the Dark Lord but he won't teach him anything, he won't allow anyone else to train him. He just keeps putting Harry into impossible situations and waiting for the boy to get himself out of them. He's survived this far, but how much longer can he go on." Leaping to his feet Sirius flung himself away from the woman, coming to rest standing against the fireplace, back turned resolutely to the room as he used his fingers to surreptitiously wipe the tears from his eyes

Khala stood, reaching out to lay a hand on Sirius' shoulder, tears sparkling in her own eyes at the anguish of the man before her. But then she stopped and allowed her hand to fall before it made contact. As much as she yearned to offer comfort she was required to keep a certain distance. Sirius would soon move on to his next destination and she would remain here, but there would be other humans joining him soon. She sincerely hoped that they would be able to offer the comfort and support that had been lacking for so much of this man's life. Her voice was all business as she answered his question. "We have sent ambassadors to each of the major wizarding governments of Earth, they are under instructions to ensure that the correct methods are re-instituted and that damage to young witches and wizards is minimised as far as is possible. Harry is young, he will be fine."

With an enormous effort of will Sirius pulled himself together and turned back to face Khala. "Tell your ambassador to beware of a knife in the back. Fudge won't like someone coming in from outside and telling him how to run things."

Khala cocked her head enquiringly, "Fudge?"

"The British Minister for Magic, he's an incompetent fool, and worse he knows it and would do anything to cover it up and keep his job." Sirius thought for a moment, "there are times I would almost swear that the man is a...but that cannot be."

Khala wondered what the black haired wizard had been going to say but time was running short and so she let it pass without comment only saying, "Fudge, is that the man's name, don't worry, he has been dealt with."

Sirius looked up at that, an almost gleeful gleam in his eyes and was eager to ask for more details but Khala stopped him. "Come, it's time," and she bustled him over to the door of the room.

Grasping the door handle she faced him one last time, "you will be alone at first but company will arrive soon, just make yourself at home for a few days until they get there."

Sirius was soundly confused by now, "but where..."

"No time, hurry now," and Khala opened the door to reveal what appeared to be the surface of a rippling, clear, blue pool filling the doorway.

"But..." Sirius tried again.

"No time," Khala repeated and practically shoved him into the pool. The last words Sirius heard as he passed through the surface were "say hello to Lantia for me!"

**A/N** There you go, what do you think? tell me in a review.


	4. Chapter 4

**Authors Note :** Here it is, chapter 4, just a short one but it seemed like the perfect place to end it. Hope you enjoy, please **read** and **review**.

Chapter 4

Sirius stepped through the door into a darkness lit only by the glow of the shimmering blue disk behind him. He was looking around himself, trying to pierce the shadows beyond the reach of the dim light, when with a metallic clunk the ring shut down and he was plunged into absolute darkness.

Disoriented at first he stood still, peering around him into the inky blackness but he was unable to see anything at all. Then he remembered what Khala had told him about his wand. Now looked like as good a time as any to try out wandless magic. Needing a focus for his intent he held out his left hand, palm up. He felt rather silly, like posturing hero from a childs comic book, but he shook off the feeling. Visualising a glowing ball of light, just as he was used to seeing at his wandtip he gathered as much power as he could and pushed it out towards his hand as he intoned "Lumos."

Suddenly a blinding flash of light exploded from his palm briefly lighting up a large chamber causing Sirius to stumble backwards, flinging up his arms to shield his eyes. "Cool" he muttered to himself, he knew Khala had said he would be more powerful now, but hearing it was far different to actually seeing it.

Shaking out his hand Sirius was glad to realise that despite the intense light, there had been no heat emitted and his hand was uninjured. He waited for a few moments, until the afterimage of the searing ball of light he had conjured had faded from his retinas before he tried again. This time he restrained himself pushing only a whisper of magic to his hand and he was rewarded with a small glowing ball that lit up a six foot radius around himself. Grinning with satisfaction at his achievement Sirius turned slowly in place, examining his surroundings.

The first thing to attract his attention was the strange doorway he had come through. Awestruck he ran his free hand over the surface of the giant metal ring that he had apparently stepped out of after Khala had ushered him through the door to his bedroom. Surprisingly it felt warm to his touch and he felt the latent power thrumming through his body. After briefly running his free hand over the strange markings etched into the metal he reluctantly drew his hand away and turned to see the rest of the chamber. He stood on a brown, stone floor marked with geometric patterns which radiated out from the centre of the large portal behind him. Exploring the area with his conjured light he found that he was standing on what appeared to be a largish platform leading up to a large metal ring which stood on edge.

Opposite the ring he found an impressive flight of steps which led him up to a mezzanine floor overlooking the platform where he had originally arrived. Having no other frame of reference he figured that this was another veil, twin to the one he had fallen through in the Department of Mysteries.

Thinking of that reminded him that however fantastic this place was he had a higher priority than simple exploration. He needed to get back to Harry, he needed to reassure Harry that rumours of his death had been greatly exaggerated. He needed to use his new found power to help end the war against he-who-must-not-be-named so that he could clear his name and get Harry away from those awful relatives of his. Most of all he needed to reassure himself that his god-son was well, and that his magical strength had not been badly reduced by the misunderstood training that had marred generations of witches and wizards.

Taking a minute to think Sirius quickly came to the conclusion that Harry would have returned to Hogwarts after the debacle at the Department of Mysteries. That decided Sirius knew his only option was to apparate to Hogsmeade.

Searching his surroundings Sirius found the crumbling remains of a long dead plant. Snapping off a brittle twig he transfigured it into a sturdy torch. Jamming the butt end of it into the railing around the mezzanine floor where he stood Sirius focused his will and with a muttered "incendio" the makeshift torch sprang into life. The area was illuminated now with a warm, flickering light.

Extinguishing the small light in his left hand, he summoned a picture of the interior of the Shrieking shack, just as he'd last seen it at the end of Harry's third year. He envisioned himself stood in the upstairs bedroom where Harry had first confronted him. Holding the image clear in his head he pushed a thread of magic into the image and waited for the twisting turmoil that was apparition travel to take him. Nothing happened.

Reconstructing the picture of where he wanted to be he added in the image of the dusty hangings surrounding the magnificent four-poster bed where Crookshanks had been lying on that fateful day. Pulling together a stronger pulse of magic he pushed it into the image with a clear intention in his mind, 'I want to be here!' Still nothing happened.

Frustrated now and determined Sirius stamped the image of where he wanted to be firmly in the forefront of his mind. Pulling up all the magic he could reach just as he had when he first attempted the lumos spell he pushed it all at the image as hard as he could. The effort sapped all his energy, causing him to fall to his knees in the flickering light but still nothing happened.

Distraught he screamed, "Khala!" but no plump, motherly woman appeared to help him in his hour of need. He was lost and alone, stuck in some empty, musty, deserted place with no idea where he was and no way to get home.

Slumping back onto his heels, hands braced on his knees, head hanging low Sirius cried. He cried for the boy who he loved like a son, the boy he had only recently begun to know, he cried for Wormtail's betrayal, for James and Lily's deaths and for the loss of the friendship he had begun to rebuild with Moony. He cried for the world he had left behind that seemed truly lost to him now.

Eventually the sobs faded and Sirius knelt quietly on the floor as he resigned himself to his fate. As he calmed, he thought about all the effort that his unknown rescuers had gone to in order to save him. The work that they had put in to repair all the damage to his body and mind. Why would they go to all that effort only to trap him in some abandoned building to die. Thinking back he remembered the images that he had seen of people walking through the veil just had he had, and the promise that Khala's people had made, that he would be alone at first but that others were coming.

He clung fiercely to that thought. If others were coming then surely they would be able to help him, to show him how to get out of this place. He assumed that there were some powerful anti-apparition wards in place to prevent him leaving but if he could just get clear of them then he could try again. He refused to be beaten and with that resolution in place he climbed once again to his feet. Khala had said that the others would follow in a few days, so he only had to find food and water to survive until they arrived. He would get out of here and back to Harry, he would help to defeat he-who... no, he would help to defeat Voldemort. After all if a child did not fear to say the name then why should he, he would help to defeat Voldemort. And then he would live free and help Harry to enjoy the few remaining years of his childhood in peace, before he launched into adulthood. He would be there for him, just as James and Lily would have wanted him to be.

Khala and her people had helped him, they wouldn't have gone to all that effort just to leave him to die. He'd survive until help came and then he'd be free.

Thinking of Khala brought back her cryptic parting words, 'say hello to Lantia for me.'

"Hello Lantia" he muttered with a wry twist of his lips.

"Hello" a warm, feminine voice replied inside his head.

A/N: There you go, hope you liked it. Next chapter Sirius has to figure out how to survive until Elizabeth Weir's team arrive. Please **review**.


	5. Chapter 5

**Authors Note :** Well here it is at last, chapter 5, it's a bit longer than the previous chapters and has given me some trouble thinking my way around the time travel implications. I can't believe it, an amazing eleven reviews for this chapter, the most I've ever received for a single chapter in any of my stories on any site so thank you so much to GenoBeast, JanusGodOfPossibilities, Elspeth, Jfitzgerald, Neqs, Desyz, Grra, Obscure Stranger, Serpent-271, krysangl, JAIMOL and Harriverse.

JanusGodOfPossibilities - what I'm actually planning to do is a second story, kind of a companion piece to this showing what's going on in the wizarding world at the same time. I won't be able to write that though until after this is complete so it'll be a while, sorry.

Grra - I'm sorry to disappoint, your ideas are far better than mine, I simply called the city Lantia as a suitable name for the city of the Lanteans and I just picked Khala off the top of my head. The war-city idea is tempting, I've been re-reading Anne McCaffrey's brainship books recently.

Everyone else who had reviewed, thank you so much, your effort is truly appreciated, I'm truly glad that you like this premise. It seemed so obvious to me that I was concerned it had been done to death although I've not read any stories based on this idea myself.

**Chapter 5**

Sirius' head shot up at the sound. Seeing no-one in front of him he whipped his head around so fast that he threw himself off balance and landed, sprawled on the floor, still trying to see who had spoken.

"Who's there?" he snapped out sharply.

In reply he heard a soft giggle before the same warm, feminine tone sounded in his head, "it's me, Lantia!"

"Where are you?" Sirius asked confused.

"I'm right here," came the reply in a voice filled with laughter.

Climbing gingerly to his feet Sirius pulled his torch free of the railings and held it high above his head to cast a wider circle of light as he searched for the speaker. "Are you a telepath?" Sirius asked, finally realising why the voice sounded so intimate. The words weren't being picked up by his ears but were instead sounding directly inside his head.

"Not in the way that you're thinking," Lantia answered. "Let me turn up the lights so that you can see me, then you can get rid of that horrible thing."

"Ok," Sirius agreed, bemused by the whole situation.

Almost imperceptibly at first the room began to lighten, slowly, very slowly, the vague outlines of the room beyond the limits of Sirius' rudimentary torch began to resolve themselves. Eventually the lights stabilised at a comfortable level and banishing his torch Sirius gazed around himself at the massive room in which he found himself.

From his vantage point at the top of the stairs he could look down at the platform which extended out from the strange circular portal through which he had entered this place. As he stared at the ring, pondering the odd markings around the outermost edge he found himself muttering the words "Astria Porta."

In surprise Sirius realised that he had spoken the unfamiliar words aloud, he had no idea how he knew that that was the name of the strange artefact, he just knew it. Then he remembered what Khala had told him in that brief time between his waking and her pushing him through the Astria Porta. 'we have given you all the information we can without over-taxing your brain' her words echoed in his ears, apparently this was part of that knowledge. Wondering what other information they had given him he focussed inwards, trying to determine what else he now knew. However, he quickly came to the realisation that this was an impossible task. How could he look for new facts in his own brain when he had no basis from which to start searching. He would simply have to wait and hope that more new information would make itself known at the appropriate time, just as the name for the portal had done.

Dragging his attention away from the giant ring he surveyed the rest of the high ceilinged chamber. It appeared to be spread over three levels, he was standing on the highest one, the Astria Porta was on the middle level with stairs leading down on each side of the platform to the lowest level.

Looking around he realised that he still could not see anyone else, "Lantia, where are you?" he asked again.

"I'm all around you," came the reply in a voice tinged with humour, "I'm the city that you're standing in."

Sirius just stared around himself, stunned into speechlessness. Reaching out he gently ran one hand over the railing where he had secured his makeshift torch. "What? How can that be?" he finally managed to articulate the words.

"I am a computer, built by the Lanteans to maintain the city, they set me to hibernate when they left. I've been sleeping for ten thousand years, you awakened me when you called my name," Lantia carefully explained.

"A computer?" the confusion was evident in Sirius' tone, "Harry mentioned computers, but they were children's toys, used for playing games and doing homework."

Lantia laughed again, a joyful sound that could not help but raise Sirius' spirits. "I am a little more sophisticated than that, there are automated processes that control many of the day to day tasks involved in running a city like this. I oversee those, interface with the residents and supply the complex processing power when needed."

Much of Lantia's explanation went clear over Sirius' head but he politely smiled and nodded eager to ask the question that was foremost in his mind. Could Lantia help him get out of the city so that he could get back to Harry. He was about to ask when Lantia suddenly shouted "No!" in a panicked voice "she's dying, please you have to help her!" the pleading tone had Sirius looking about him to see who he had to help.

"Who...?" was all he had time to ask before Lantia cut in.

"This way, please hurry," and trail of lights appeared within the surface of the floor as she spoke.

At a run Sirius pounded through the deserted corridors of the ancient city, lights coming on in each section as he approached and turning off after he had passed. Sliding around a corner he came to a sudden halt as he piled into the wall of a tiny room just as the door slid shut behind him. Staring around the closet like space Sirius was once more swamped with confusion, it seemed to be an almost constant condition ever since he had first fallen through the Veil in the ministry.

Before he had time to voice his feelings the doors slid open once more and the trail of light in the floor had him running back down a different corridor from the one he had followed into the small room. Finally he turned into a good sized room full of strange consoles and over on the other side of the room he saw the cause of Lantia's concern. In a strange cabinet against the far wall stood a woman, she was obviously very old with long white hair and wearing a flowing white dress. As Sirius entered the room he could see her gasping for breath although her eyes were still closed and she appeared to be unconscious.

Sirius hurried around the central console just as the glass front of the cabinet opened and the woman began to collapse. Quickly he took the last few paces and caught her before she hit the floor. Gathering the strange woman in his arms he carefully lifted her, surprised at how light a burden she was. His actions so far had been completely instinctual but now, as he stood in the fantastic city, cradling an incredibly ancient woman in his arms, he had absolutely no idea what to do next.

Looking down at the lined and wrinkled face resting against his shoulder he saw that the slight blue tinge around her lips was already fading and now that she was out of the container her breathing was more normal so that she seemed to just be sleeping. "Lantia, what do I do?" he asked, his eyes roaming around the room, searching for something to focus on. He was unused to carrying on conversations without being able to see the other parties face.

"Bring her this way," Lantia's voice was calm again now, although the faint, laughing tone of earlier was gone. The trail of lights in the floor lit up once again and Sirius followed them at a much slower pace than earlier back to the small closet like room. Knowing what to expect this time Sirius turned and waited quietly for the door to slide back open before shifting up the woman in his arms and following the floor light into a room that appeared to be some kind of infirmary.

Although the technology in the room was far beyond anything that he had encountered in the past, the stark, narrow beds seemed to be universal. Sirius laid his burden on one of them, covering her gently with a cotton sheet. As soon as he stepped back metal sides rose from the edges of the bed to flank the woman ensuring that she could not fall. With a muted hum a panel at the head of the bed flared into life with a number of displays and lettering in a vaguely familiar looking script. Staring intently at the letter shapes Sirius realised with a pang that he did recognise them and he desperately wished that he had paid more attention in Ancient Runes class during his Hogwarts days.

"What now?" he asked.

"Her condition appears to be stable, now we wait and see if she wakes up." Lantia replied calmly.

"Who is she?" Sirius asked in a low voice, pitched to avoid waking the sleeping woman.

"I don't know." Lantia sounded curiously reluctant to admit as much. "I knew everyone in the city, I watched each one leave until only Janus was left. He shut down my systems before leaving the city. He was the last to go."

"Could he have... I don't know... snuck her into the city before he left?" Sirius asked.

There was a pause before Lantia replied, "no... unless..." she paused and it seemed to Sirius that she was thinking, he found it hard to equate the friendly voice with a soulless machine. Finally she spoke again, shocking Sirius with her words. "Damn him."

"What happened?" Sirius asked surprised by the obvious frustration in the voice.

"I don't know" Lantia said again, "there are gaps in my memories, I've just checked over everything from the week leading up to the final evacuation and there are holes and inconsistencies in the time codes. It had to have been Janus, he's cut out everything from my memory that might have told me who she is or what she's doing here."

Avoiding asking the obvious question Sirius simply said, "then we'll just have to ask her when she wakes up."

And with that he looked around himself to find a chair and pulling it up to the bed side he sat down to wait. The seat was uncomfortable, in the manner of hospital chairs the world over, indeed the universe over if Sirius only knew it, but even so the events of the day quickly caught up to him and Sirius gently slipped into a restless sleep.

Several hours later he was awoken by a gentle voice calling his name. "Sirius... Sirius wake up" Lantia called him out of sleep. "She's waking up." The words finally permeated the fog clouding Sirius' tired mind and he shook off the last remnants of sleep.

Scrubbing his hands over his face Sirius stood and moved over to the narrow bed where the elderly woman was beginning to wake, her head shifting position, her eyes moving restlessly underneath the paper-thin lids. Seeing her fragile hand twitching where it lay on top of the thin cotton sheet he took it in his as he waited for her to open her eyes. Eventually they fluttered open and he looked down into a pair of warm brown eyes that looked out alertly from the pale, lined face that surrounded them.

"Hello."

"Hello" the woman sounded uncertain as she greeted Sirius. She seemed to be trying to look past him, as if she was expecting someone else to be in the room.

Sirius turned briefly to look over his shoulder, wondering who she was expecting to see. "How are you feeling?" he asked gently trying to bring her attention back to himself.

The woman's gaze was drawn back to him and she stared at him, searching for something recognisable. "Who are you?" she finally asked.

"Sirius Black" Sirius quickly introduced himself, "and you are?"

"Elizabeth Weir" she examined his face for several more moments looking for some sign of recognition "I don't know you."

"No, we've never met. I just arrived through the Astria Porta, Khala sent me. She said that others would be coming soon but she didn't mention anyone being here already."

"You're not part of the Atlantis expedition," the woman, Elizabeth stated, "how is that possible?"

"I'm sorry, I don't know anything about this Atlantis expedition. I was involved in a battle in London, I fell through a stone arch called the Veil and found myself amongst Khala's people. They helped me and then sent me here, I need to get back to London, do you know how I can do that?" Sirius finally got the chance to ask for the help he needed.

Elizabeth simply looked shocked and Sirius found himself quite concerned for her wellbeing, she was obviously very old and he worried that he had no way to help her if she fell ill.

"You're from Earth." The simple statement stunned Sirius, it had never occurred to him that he wouldn't be on Earth, he'd heard about Science Fiction and the concept of life on other planets from his god-son, but he'd never considered it a real possibility. However, if all he'd ever believed was true, then why would Elizabeth sound so surprised at that revelation. Hell it shouldn't even be a revelation.

"Of course I'm from Earth, why, where are you from?" he asked somewhat angrily.

"I'm from Washington D.C." she replied but was cut off before she could say anything further.

"On Earth!" stated Sirius, anger still obvious in his voice and his face.

"Yes, but this isn't Earth" Elizabeth said gently, she was old, and she was tired, and she was weak, and this man, frankly, scared her a little.

Tearing his hand free Sirius flung himself across the room, venting some of his rage and fear by slamming his hands against the wall of the infirmary before turning back to the frail woman on the bed. "What do you mean, 'this isn't Earth'?" he snarled.

"This is Atlantis" she shrank back against the pillow of the bed as she spoke, fearful of igniting the wrath of this stranger who shouldn't even be in the city.

Seeing her fear Sirius fought to control himself. Something strange was going on here but it wasn't this woman's fault. She was helpless, at his mercy, and at the moment she was his responsibility, there was no-one else here to take care of her. Then he remembered that there was someone else here, someone who might be able to answer some of his questions.

"Lantia," he called out softly "are you still there?"

"I'm here," she replied in his mind "she's telling the truth, this place has been known by many names, Atlantis is one of those, and we are not currently on Earth."

Sirius stared into space as he listened to the voice in his head. He had been on an emotional roller coaster ever since falling through the Veil in the Department of Mysteries. One moment convinced he would be able to get back home to Harry, the next having those hopes dashed only to raise them again and have them quickly dashed once more. Now he watched those dreams crumble for the last time, how could they have sent him to another planet, who knew muggles had become so technologically advanced. The wizarding world hadn't even heard of the concept of life on other planets, muggles were actually visiting other worlds.

Elizabeth had watched Sirius since his strange question, he seemed to be listening for a reply and then his expression fell, he looked as if his life was over, but she had heard nothing. How had this happened, she had barely expected to wake again as she had sealed herself inside the stasis pod for the last time. But she had been sure that if she did wake it would be to find herself surrounded by her friends and colleagues from the Atlantis expedition, friendly faces with whom she could live out her final days. She knew it would only be days, the human body was not meant to survive for ten thousand years, even with the help of a stasis pod. Now here she was, awakened by a mad man who shouldn't even be here, and she was at his mercy.

Shaking off his crushing disappointment Sirius realised that he had more important concerns for the moment. Looking down he saw that the fear had returned to Elizabeth's eyes. "What's wrong, you heard that, Lantia confirmed what you said."

"I didn't hear anything" Elizabeth feared to anger this man, with his black eyes and his mane of long, curling black hair, he didn't look like someone who would take contradiction well.

Confused he raised his head once more, addressing his questions to the panel at the head of the bed he asked, "Lantia, how can she not hear you?"

"I don't know... unless, oops she doesn't carry the gene of the Lanteans, she may be descended from them but if so her blood-line has weakened over the generations. I cannot talk directly to her, not in the same way that I can speak to you." Suddenly Lantia's golden tones echoed through the room then swiftly modulated themselves to a more reasonable sound level. "Sorry, I didn't realise that you couldn't hear me Elizabeth, I've turned on the speakers now, is that better?"

Elizabeth struggled to lift her head and upper body from the bed and Sirius moved quickly to support her as Lantia adjusted the bed to hold her in the more vertical position. Once settled Elizabeth looked around in wonder, "Lantia, you're the city, aren't you?" she asked.

"I am" Lantia sounded pleased to be recognised.

"Why didn't you help us the first time around?" Elizabeth was now the one to sound angry, "all but three of my expedition died and you did nothing. If you control the city, if you ARE the city then you could have helped us."

"I have no memory of any of this, I don't know who you are or how you got here, no-one has died here in over ten thousand years." Lantia was taken aback at the sudden attack when suddenly Elizabeth's words sunk in and both Sirius and Lantia exclaimed together "what do you mean 'the first time'?"

So Elizabeth began her tale, Sirius sank into his chair muttering to Lantia "can you record this?" and hearing her assent in his head as he listened in wonder to the story of how the expedition had come on a one way trip from Earth. He heard of the bravery of the team members as they fought for more time to try to save as many as they could, but how only three survived. He heard how two of those three died as they were attacked after being thrown back in time. And finally he heard of the actions taken by Janus to secretly help Elizabeth to make it back to her own time and to save her friends.

As Elizabeth finally finished she slumped back, exhausted, against her pillows. Sirius seeing how the exertion of telling her story had drained her felt sudden guilt and he leapt to his feet to see what he could do for the obviously very sick woman. He fluttered around aimlessly for a few moments, but he quite clearly had no idea what do to help her and she waved him off muttering, "I just need to rest" as she slipped into a light doze.

Moving over to the opposite side of the room so as not to disturb the sleeping woman Sirius started a whispered conversation with Lantia. "What do we do now, she's very weak, she needs food and water and qualified medical care. Is there anything edible left in the city?"

"No, nothing, we just have to wait until she wakes again. I can't believe Janus would do something so stupid." Lantia sounded seriously concerned. Sirius couldn't help but wonder what was so stupid about wanting to save the lives of over a hundred people. Curious as he was he decided to wait until Elizabeth was awake again to ask so he settled down in his seat to nap until then.

Soft voices penetrated Sirius' sleeping mind and he awoke to find Elizabeth and Lantia chatting quietly as they waited for him to join them. Shaking his head to clear the sleep from it he stood and stepped across to the bed to join the conversation. He heard Lantia finish telling Elizabeth all that they knew so far which wasn't much. Only that after shutting down Lantia for the millennia long wait for life to return to Atlantis Janus had apparently removed all trace of information about Elizabeth from Lantia's memories of the last days of the city.

Into the silence that followed Lantia's words Sirius asked his question, "so, how do we trigger this failsafe device?"

Elizabeth stared at him as if he had grown a second head, the feeling was so strong he found himself running his hands over his neck, just to check. While Lantia immediately burst out with "No! That's the worst thing we could do."

Sirius didn't understand their responses, it seemed so obvious to him, raise the city and no-one needed to die, or even worry, the expedition could come through safely and have a few days to acclimatise themselves to their new home before setting off to explore the new worlds open to them.

"Calm down and tell me why that's a bad idea." He asked, apparently it was a bad idea since both ladies agreed but he wanted to understand the reasons why, and hopefully vocalising their arguments would help Lantia and Elizabeth to reach a solution.

Elizabeth got in first and tried to explain "my expedition stepped through the stargate, the Astria Porta, on 19th July 2004, Lantia, do you know the current Earth date?"

Knowing where this was leading Lantia wished she could answer, but she had no way of knowing the way that time was measured in another galaxy by a race that had scarcely existed the last time she had been awake. "I'm sorry, I don't know that, but from what Sirius was told by Khala I imagine we have about seven to ten days before your team arrives."

Sirius heard little more after Elizabeth mentioned the date her team arrived, it had been June, 1996 when he fell through the Veil, over eight years had passed. He had tried to reconcile himself to the fact that he would not be able to get home, but hearing that even if he could it would be years too late to save anyone was the death-knell to his hopes and it was all he could do to maintain consciousness as his vision began to grey out around the edges.

Elizabeth noticed something was wrong when she saw the suddenly white knuckled grip that Sirius had on the bars alongside her bed. Raising her eyes to his face she saw that all colour had drained from his features leaving them an unhealthy, pasty white. "Sirius... Sirius" she called his name and tried to raise her hand to his face but she was too weak and her hand simply touched his chest before slipping down the velvet lapel of the decidedly old fashioned coat that he wore.

Hearing the worry in her voice Sirius shook off his devastation and gestured for her to continue. She was not reassured, but feeling that her time was getting short she carried on her explanation.

"Changing the timeline the way that Janus did was an incredibly risky thing to do, with you thrown into the middle of the cycle the way you have been the risk of paradox becomes infinitely greater." Sirius was confused, he had no idea what paradox was, but he refrained from interrupting. Someone of Elizabeth's obvious age deserved at least that much respect from him. "If the city is raised before 19th July 2004 Earth time then we wouldn't have to go back in time to escape the drowning city, but if we don't go back in time then I wouldn't be here to tell you about the disaster to come and you wouldn't raise the city. Do you see the problem?" she asked, hoping he could understand.

Sirius thought he understood but the circular thinking was beginning to give him a headache, that along with the fact that he hadn't eaten or drunk anything in well over 12 hours now. "But you did go back, you're here now so you must have gone back, and the failsafe is in place... Lantia, the failsafe **is** in place isn't it?" Sirius asked, suddenly unsure.

They waited through the brief period of time while Lantia searched her systems before her voice rang once more through the speakers mounted at the head of the bed. "I cannot find any sign of such a device."

Sirius rocked back on his heels in surprise, he'd been so sure that the failsafe would already be in place.

"The gaps in your memory," Elizabeth put it together first, "Janus must have hidden all knowledge of the failsafe from you, but why, and how can it work without your control."

Elizabeth was still puzzled but her words had given Lantia all the clue that she needed to finish putting the picture together. "Just in case something like this... something unexpected happened. He hid the knowledge of the failsafe from me so that I couldn't do anything to change the cycle. He knew the risks of paradox in changing the past, he must have decided that it was safe enough in a closed cycle. But it's not closed anymore, you've opened it up Sirius. He must have set up a slave system, buffered from me to operate the failsafe automatically, he probably did the same to your stasis pod Elizabeth, setting a slave system to waken you when someone arrived in the city. That's why I didn't know anything about you until you began to wake and I detected your life-signs in distress."

"So, what do we do now?" Sirius asked again, this was all way over his head, he simply hoped to lead Lantia and Elizabeth to a solution if at all possible.

Lantia had the answer now, it was very clear to her. "We close the cycle again."

Sirius and Elizabeth exchanged an odd look, "and how are we supposed to do that?" Sirius finally asked.

"We need to get you out of here." Lantia replied and at Sirius' shocked look she hurried on with her explanation. "The risks increase because you arrived in the middle of the cycle, so we need to get you off the city. You need to leave anyway because there is no food here, nothing to drink, you won't survive until the expedition arrives if you stay here. Take one of the ships from the docking bay, I can manipulate the forcefields to allow you to fly out without drowning the city. Go to the mainland until the city rises. You will have plenty of food and water to support you until then. When the ship's sensors show that the city floats once more then it will be safe to return."

Sirius hated the idea that he would have to leave, he knew that if there was any chance of getting back home to Earth then it lay in this city. However, one look at Elizabeth told him that she wasn't doing well, her only chance for survival was to get out of the city. His mind made up he asked Lantia where he could find the docking bay.

Taking Elizabeth's hand in his he laid his other hand on her shoulder and looked down earnestly into those soft, brown eyes. They had been so clear and alert when she first woke up but now, only hours later they seemed to be fading, their depths clouding with pain. He was seriously concerned for her well-being but at the moment there was nothing he could do to help her. He concentrated on getting them out of there, hopefully to somewhere she could get help. "I'll be back shortly, I'm just going to check out these ships to see if this plan can work. Lantia will be here if you need anything, she can relay a message to me, OK?" Elizabeth's assenting nod was almost imperceptible and Sirius gently patted the frail shoulder under his hand before turning to follow the guiding lights that Lantia once more supplied.

Hurrying through the corridors once more Sirius soon found himself in a massive cavern-like chamber filled with ranks of strange vehicles. The lights led him to the rear of one of the large, grey, cylindrical objects. Sirius danced aside as the entire back of the vehicle opened out to form a ramp on the spot where Sirius had been standing. Tentatively Sirius walked up the ramp, starting slightly when the lights switched on as he entered the interior.

Looking around in trepidation Sirius wondered how he was supposed to know how to drive this thing. As he thought about it though, he realised that he did know. Moving over to the front of the compartment in which he found himself Sirius quickly found the control that opened the cockpit doors. Touching it the doors slid aside revealing two functional looking seats in front of a large and complex console. Sitting in the left hand seat he looked out briefly through the large window that covered the whole front of the ship before turning his attention to the console.

Surveying the controls he saw that they were marked with the same runic symbols as the display panel above Elizabeth's bed in the infirmary. After staring at them for some time, trying to dredge up the knowledge of what they meant from his ancient runes classes so many years ago Sirius found the information swimming up from his subconscious mind. Reaching out he unerringly found the control to close the rear door. Heartened by this small success he reached for another control and felt the ship's powerful engines surge into life as a small control yoke raised out of the console, settling into position in front of him.

Nervously he took a deep breath and gently pulled on the yoke. As the ship lifted up from it's resting place on the floor of the large chamber Sirius panicked and released the yoke, pushing back in his seat to distance himself from the controls. Immediately the ship thumped back down to the deck with a loud clang.

Sirius sat for several minutes breathing heavily, his heart pounding in his chest. What was he thinking, he couldn't do this, he was a wizard, he didn't do technology. Sirius was jerked out of his thoughts by Lantia's voice in his head. "Sirius, you need to hurry, Elizabeth is not doing well."

Remembering that he had other responsibilities outside of himself, Sirius resolved to do better than he had in the past and took the control yoke in hand once more. This time he was prepared as the ship lifted off and he carefully steadied it before asking Lantia, "OK, what do I do now?"

Suddenly a glowing column of lights appeared, leading up to a large door in the ceiling which slowly slid out of the way. Manoeuvring the ship very slowly, Sirius carefully followed the glowing path and eventually found himself hovering above the platform in front of the Astria Porta. Gently he set the ship down and shutting off the engines he quickly opened the rear door before hurrying off to the infirmary to get Elizabeth.

Hastening to her bedside Sirius saw her eyelids open as she was awakened by his entrance. "Ready to go?" he asked her before lifting her into his arms and swiftly carrying her back to the ship. Inside he got her settled into the right-hand seat, reclining it as much as he could and making sure that the seat-belt was securely fastened to keep her in place.

Fastening his own seat-belt he fired up the engines once more and brought the ship to a gentle hover just feet above the platform.

"What now Lantia?" he asked.

"Now you leave, I've programmed the heads up display to direct you to the nearest fertile land, you should be able to find food and water there. Check the ship's sensors daily, they will tell you when the city floats once more. I will open the exit for you, but before you go I need you to do one more thing for me."

"Of course, what do you need?" Sirius asked eagerly, Lantia had helped him so much, he would do anything he could to return the favour.

"I need you to repeat these words after me, exactly as I say them, and then leave as quickly as possible afterwards." Lantia's tone gave no room for argument and Sirius instantly agreed.

"Very well, say 'Create function, Exit Protocol.'"

"Huh" Sirius just grunted in surprise at the unfamiliar words.

"Just say it," Lantia snapped urgently.

"Create function, Exit Protocol." Sirius dutifully repeated the words.

"Good, now, 'Escape mechanism activate, wait 30, sleep until awakened, code-word Lantia, End function.'"

"Escape mechanism activate, wait 30, sleep until awakened, code-word Lantia, End function." repeated Sirius.

"Excellent, now say, 'function Exit Protocol activate' that will trigger the exit route, follow the lights and leave. I will awaken when you call my name on your return. Fare well Sirius."

Reluctantly Sirius followed his instructions and spoke the final phrase, "function Exit Protocol activate." Immediately the lights appeared, directing him up through the roof of the chamber. They passed through several levels, each one opening up and then closing securely behind them before the next would open. Finally after the last transition they found themselves hovering just below the glowing forcefield that held back the ocean. The forcefield began to flex, twisting and extending until it enclosed the ship entirely. Now they were outside the main field the skin above them thinned and water rushed in to surround the ship. Moments later they were completely surrounded, the engine noise changed and Sirius found that the vehicle was just as responsive in water as it had been in air.

Casting a quick glance back to the underwater city Sirius tossed off a quick salute to Lantia before turning to check on his passenger. Elizabeth was sat quietly in her seat with her eyes closed, she looked pale and wan in the diffuse light that made it's way down to this depth.

Sirius thought urgently of the heads up display that was supposed to lead him to land and immediately a glowing blue map appeared, overlaying the window in front of him. Taking a few moments to orient himself Sirius quickly got his bearings and manoeuvred the ship to follow the indicated path, rising swiftly to the surface of the ocean. As they rose the light grew progressively brighter, until finally they burst through the surface into the soft rose light of dawn.

Pausing to adjust to the sudden change in the light levels, Sirius hovered the ship above the tips of the rolling waves beneath them. He turned to Elizabeth and saw that her eyes were now open, smiling softly they both watched the dawn, staring in awe at the wonder of this new world on which they found themselves. Eventually the sun had risen clear of the horizon and Sirius decided it was time to go. As he reached for the control yoke once again he heard soft words from the woman beside him.

"That was beautiful, thank you Sirius," her voice little more than a whisper.

Sirius smiled reassuringly over at her, "just hold on, we'll be on land soon."

Turning back he settled in to drive them as quickly as possible to the closest land. It wasn't any where close to flying by broomstick, or even by Hippogriff but Sirius found himself enjoying the freedom of being in the air. He was pleased to notice as Elizabeth quietly slipped into sleep. Intent on getting to land as quickly as possible, he didn't notice as her breathing became slower and slower until it finally stopped and she slipped slowly into a death long denied.

A little over an hour later Sirius sighted land, glancing over to Elizabeth in triumph he noticed how still she was, but refused to think on the possible implications. Instead he focussed on pushing the little ship harder, desperate to get to the land and ten minutes later he touched down in a pleasant clearing a short distance inland from the coast.

Unwilling to admit to the truth that his subconscious already knew, Sirius turned to Elizabeth, reaching out to gently shake her awake. As soon as he touched her arm he could no longer deny the truth, her skin was cold, warmed only by the sunlight through the large viewing window. Hanging his head in sorrow Sirius wept for the gentle soul that he had only known for such a short time. Once the tears started to flow Sirius found himself unable to stop as he grieved for all that he had lost, all hope of returning to Earth in time to aid Harry was gone, now he was exiled from Atlantis for at least a week and his only companion was dead.

Gathering his last reserves he gently released the straps holding Elizabeth's body in place and lifting her in his arms he carried her into the rear compartment where he laid her out on the bench along one side of the ship. Searching through the various storage lockers in the rear of the ship he quickly located a sturdy shovel and triggering the door he trod down the ramp to locate a suitable final resting place for the only other human currently resident on the planet.

**A/N :** Well there it is, am I butchering your favourite characters, **please review** and let me know.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note :** Thank you to** Obscure Stranger, Charlotte Thornton** and **UnheardAgony** for your reviews, as always I really appreciate you making the effort to write up your comments. I'm sorry **Charlotte Thornton** but you'll have to wait a little while longer to find out the main pairing, Sirius / ? but it's coming. I also got an anonymous review, apparently the story is surprisingly well written, forgive me if I'm being a little sensitive here but I'd love to know why it's surprising that I can write a reasonable story.

Chapter 6

Sirius sat on a low hilltop overlooking the small clearing that had been his home for the last five days. There was little to show for his recent occupation, only the craft which he had flown from the city to the mainland parked off to one side, the camp fire he had laid in a circle of stones and the rough bed where he slept.

He had spent the first night in the ship but he found that the dark confines reminded him too much of the cell he had occupied in Azkaban. The next morning he had left the ship as soon as it was light, the weather was fine with blue skies and little cloud. The nights were cooler than the days but not by much so he had built himself a rough bed with a little skill and a lot of magic. A warm blanket transfigured from some stray threads he'd teased loose from his jacket provided the finishing touch and he'd spent every night since comfortably sleeping under the stars.

He busied himself during the days exploring the surrounding area, taking a new direction each morning then heading back in the early afternoon. He had explored the coastline for half a day's walk in either direction and taken a couple of trips inland. As he wandered he kept an eye out for anything that he thought might help him survive. Memories of long ago herbology lessons were dredged to the fore but were of little help in identifying plants that had evolved under a different sun. Still he had managed to identify several fruits and berries that had sustained him and he'd also found a colony of small rodent like creatures. He had been careful in choosing, watching them for several hours before picking an older animal, slower than the others but still with a fair amount of meat on its bones.

A moment spent focusing on his intent and a quick muttered Adava Kadavra had secured him a good meal for that evening, returning the much maligned unforgiveable to its original use in slaughtering animals for the table. Today he had spent the day walking on the beach, he had been lucky to happen upon a rockpool at low tide where a decent sized fish had been stranded. A quick spell to siphon out the water from the pool had left the fish high and dry, easy for Sirius to pick up and kill. After efficiently gutting the fish he had carried it back to his campsite and wrapped it in seaweed before placing it amongst the embers at the edge of his fire to gently bake.

As he waited for the fish to cook Sirius sat up on the hillside, as he did every evening, watching the sun going down and talking to Elizabeth about what he had done that day. To his side was the cairn of stones that covered her final resting place and sharing the sunset with her each day helped to relieve his loneliness.

It had been five days since he had landed here, five days since he had left Lantia to sleep beneath the waves once more. awaiting the expedition from Earth. Each morning and evening he checked the sensors within the ship for some sign that the city had risen and he could safely return but so far he had seen nothing. It couldn't be much longer surely, Khala had given him the impression that he would be alone in the city for a week, ten days at the most, it surely couldn't be much longer after the expedition arrived before the city rose. From what Elizabeth had told them it had not taken very long at all for the shield to collapse the first time round and while he wouldn't wish disaster on anyone Sirius wanted desperately to get back to the city. He had endured enough solitude to last several lifetimes, he wanted to meet the people Elizabeth had told them about and to speak to Lantia again.

It was two more days before there was any activity in the sunken city, but Sirius couldn't know anything about it as the Astria Porta once more flared into life bathing the chamber in its scintillating blue glow once again before people began stepping out of the portal to occupy the city once again.

The quiet of the deserted city was shattered as people were soon pouring through the portal bringing huge piles of baggage and equipment with them. Soldiers spread out quickly from the entry chamber while others hurried to clear the arrival area to make way for those that followed. In a surprisingly short amount of time people stopped appearing through the shimmering blue pool and a woman with shoulder length brown hair looked around her with satisfaction. Raising a radio she spoke "General O'Neill? Atlantis base offers greetings from the Pegasus Galaxy. You may cut power to the 'gate."

Everyone in the room turned to watch as the their last link with home shut-down but instead something strange happened, something that demonstrated that the stroke of a butterfly's wings can echo not just around the world but across galaxies.

Several million light years away two men stood in front of another glowing blue disk. The older man held a large bottle of champagne in his hands adorned with a ribbon and a large gift tag. As he made to kneel and roll the bottle through the event horizon of the gate the younger man at his side stopped him with a gesture.

As the grey haired man turned to see what was up he was surprised to see the fair headed man holding a heavily loaded rucksack. "Please Jack, I could just..." The younger man implored as he gestured towards the gate, it would be so easy to just step through, to explore a new galaxy free of Goa'uld and Ori.

With a resigned shake of his head the man called Jack spoke words he had apparently already repeated several times. "No Danny, we need you here."

This time however Danny brought out the big guns, hefting a second rucksack in his other hand he said "you could come too!"

Jack stared at him in shock, then suddenly a wide grin broke out over his features, "do you mean..." he asked to the confusion of all those around them as one hand reached towards an inside pocket.

Danny nodded with a slow smile, "absolutely."

Somehow Jack accomplished the impossible as the grin on his face spread even wider. Reaching inside his camouflage shirt he pulled out two, slightly dog-eared envelopes and checking the fronts he handed one to Danny in exchange for the second rucksack.

Both men now had large grins on their faces as they turned to their audience and as one called out "we resign!" Tossing the envelopes to the ramp in front of them they simultaneously stepped backwards through the event horizon only to reappear moments later before the astonished eyes of the Atlantis team in the Pegasus galaxy.

"General O'Neill, Daniel!" The shock was obvious in the voice of the woman as she greeted the two late arrivals.

"Just Jack!" the older man stated gleefully as he offered the large champagne bottle he still held as if it were a peace offering, "we resigned."

Whilst the younger man, Daniel elbowed his companion with a muttered aside, "see, some people can use my correct name." He then turned to greet the woman with the radio, "hello Elizabeth, congratulations." An expansive wave of his arms encompassed all that was visible of the ancient facility, making it clear just what he was congratulating her on.

By this time the commotion had recalled the exploring soldiers to the gateroom. The man who had come first through the 'gate stepped up beside Elizabeth, "General O'Neill, Dr Jackson, we weren't expecting you."

"Hello Colonel Sumner, it's just Jack and Danny..."

"Daniel!" Daniel corrected the older man.

"Whatever," Jack waved off the correction, "we resigned, consider us..." he paused, sharing a glance with his companion. "Civilian consultants." He finished with Daniel's apparent consent.

"You can't just resign and run away through the stargate!" the other soldier sounded shocked at the very idea.

A shocked silence settled upon the room at the Colonel's words, the very idea of General Jack O'Neill and Dr Daniel Jackson running away from anything was apparently unthinkable to these people. Those names, after all, were legendary to anyone even remotely associated with the stargate programme.

The silence was broken by the hiss of the radio, "Dr Weir, are they with you?" came the question and no-one had any doubt who the voice was asking about.

"Dr Weir?" the radio crackled again before the man called Jack prompted her to answer the call.

"Yes, they're here."

"Thank you," relief was evident in the young sounding voice from another galaxy, "I've someone on the line who would like to speak with them."

"Go ahead," Dr Weir instructed.

Now a new, older voice floated from the radio, one recognised by every single person listening in the Atlantis base gate room, the voice of the leader of the free world, "Jack, Daniel, I just received a very unusual call from the young Lieutenant you left in charge of the Antarctica facility. Unconventional but even so, resignations accepted with the thanks of a grateful nation, and if they but knew it, a grateful world." Seconds later the gate shut down and an urgent whispering started amongst those crowded around.

Finally shaking off her shock Dr Weir raised her voice to quiet the expedition members. "Quiet everybody, Quiet." It took several minutes but finally some semblance of order was restored. "Yes, that was the President of the United States. Now this has been a little more excitement than we expected, even given the nature of the planned events of the day. But now we have important work to be doing so please go about your assigned duties." She waited for a moment to see that her instructions were being carried out before calling two more expedition members over to join her, "Rodney, John could you join us for a moment please?"

One of the two men addressed, John had been about to leave the gate room to aid in scouting the facility for any sign of life. He quickly lowered his weapon and moved over to join the small group at the foot of the ramp from the stargate. The other man, Rodney was busy directing the members of the science team. They had been initially ordered by Colonel Sumner to 'park it' while the teams of soldiers cleared the base. However Elizabeth's instructions could be viewed as permission to begin their own investigations and he chose to take it that way until someone told him otherwise. Shooing the scientists off to their various tasks he too moved to join the little huddle in front of the stargate.

As Rodney and John joined the group Colonel Sumner came straight to the point "civilian consultants my ass, we have no room for hangers on. If you're here then you're drafted back into the military."

Jack didn't like the sound of that, they were here for one reason and one reason only, Danny had finally relented. Being drafted back into the military would definitely put a cramp in his plans, don't ask , don't tell was a step in the right direction, but in Jack's opinion it didn't go nearly far enough.

Elizabeth was thinking her own thoughts at the Colonel's words, she couldn't deny that having General O'Neill and Dr Jackson working as an official part of the expedition would be a major coup. It was well known that the General had the strongest manifestation of the ATA gene yet discovered, although Major Sheppard looked likely to rival that crown, and of course Dr Jackson's encyclopaedic knowledge and archaeological experience would be an asset to any scientific mission. However she was sure that the Colonel's approach was entirely the wrong one if he wanted to get the two surprise new comers onside. General O'Neill's stubbornness was well known to all members of the SGC and if the stories were even half true then Dr Jackson was far worse.

Daniel's thoughts mirrored Jack's but he kept quiet, prepared as always to cover his friend's six but trusting Jack to talk his way out of anything he truly didn't want to do.

Meanwhile both John and Rodney had seen the fatal flaw in Colonel Sumner's plan. "Do you really want to draft the **General** back into the military **Colonel**?" John asked, carefully emphasizing the relative ranks of the two men.

"Especially after the President of the United States has accepted their resignations in person?" Rodney hammered the last nail in the coffin of the Colonel's intentions.

"Damn right I..." it took a few moments for John and Rodney's points to sink in, but as soon as they did he stopped dead. "What are your plans now that you're here?" he asked the two newcomers instead.

Jack and Daniel exchanged a quick glance before the older man took up the conversation once again. "We want to help explore the Pegasus galaxy, I have the gene, Daniel is one of the foremost authorities on all things Ancient as well as speaking, reading and writing about a gazillion dead languages." He broke off to shush his friend who tried to object to the massive exaggeration. "I think you can find some use for us here on the base."

Elizabeth decided it was time to intervene and remind everyone that the ultimate authority on this expedition was civil, not military. "I for one am very glad to see both of you, I know the scientists will be very grateful to have access to such a strong manifestation of the Ancient gene and to Dr Jackson's expertise in all matters Ancient." Then she asked the question that had been lurking in the back of her mind since seeing them step through the gate. "Would you be prepared to head up a gate team Gen... Jack?" she quickly corrected herself.

Light flared in the silver haired man's eyes at the thought of leading a team through the gate once more with Danny at his side. It dimmed almost immediately though as he looked at his friend and remembered why he'd accepted the promotion to General in the first place. He was no longer a young man, years of gate travel and the stresses and strains placed on his body by the many running battles with the Goa'uld and other aliens encountered along the way had all taken their toll. While he still kept up a punishing physical fitness regime he was no longer up to the extreme exertion required in a gate team. "Thank you Elizabeth but that's a young man's game, leave the gate teams to the Colonel and the Major here, Danny and I will provide behind the scenes support on base here and maybe some follow-up after first contact has been made.

Elizabeth was disappointed, but not surprised. Whilst it would be amazing to recreate the legendary SG1 team it was only a pipe dream. She had chosen good people for the expedition and was sure that with the help and advice that Jack and Danny could offer they would quickly shape up into a first class exploration and first contact expedition. "Alright, find a quiet corner and take a seat whilst the military teams finish scouting the city." As she spoke she looked around and realised that there wasn't a single scientist, other than Rodney and Daniel, in sight.

"Rodney, where are your people?" she asked, suspicion clear in her tone.

Whipping his head around, Colonel Sumner realised that she was right, he had been so distracted by the arrival of General O'Neill and Dr Jackson that he hadn't noticed the scientists ignoring his instructions and heading out to explore. "Dr McKay!" he barked in a threatening tone.

"What!" Rodney asked "Elizabeth, you told us to get on with our assigned tasks. The scientific teams assigned task is exploration of the city and the galaxy."

"Rodney, you know very well that's not..." Elizabeth's remonstrance was broken off as a massive shockwave shook the whole of the city around them.

The military men raised their weapons as they rapidly scanned their surroundings for any sign of a threat while McKay reached for his instruments to try to ascertain what was happening. Jack and Daniel just looked around trying to see any hint of the cause of the alarming shaking of the city having no access to weapons or instrumentation at present. A face appeared at the head of the stairs opposite the stargate. "Dr McKay, you'd better get up here, quick" and the face disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared.

That started an immediate stampede as the small group ran up the steps to see what had happened whilst they had been distracted. "Well, what's going on Dr..?" Rodney rapped out, snapping his fingers at the man who'd called him up there in lieu of using the man's name which he had obviously forgotten.

"Dr Grodin," Elizabeth interjected.

"Whatever!" snapped Rodney, showing his customary lack of concern for the social niceties.

"We've just got these consoles up and running, we had to wait for one of the gene carriers to get here. This one appears to be monitoring the power level in the city." He gestured to the console he was standing over, the quantity of red lights on the display didn't arouse confidence in anyone's breast. "The level's dropping like a stone and nothing we've tried has stopped it."

Pushing Dr Grodin out of the way, Rodney moved around to examine the readings on the console in question. "What 's causing this, what could be causing such a massive drain on the power system?"

Dr Grodin looked up surprised before he realised that the other's had not yet left the gateroom and so hadn't seen exactly where they were. Gesturing to the group he led them away from the consoles and around a corner before stepping aside to allow the others to take in the amazing view in front of them.

As the group entered the room they each stopped dead as they saw took in the incredible view before them. One entire wall of the room was glass and beyond that they could see the city spread out before them. Above the city they saw the occasional sparks of some forcefield holding back an immense volume of water. Their shocked minds slowly grasped the implications of what they had just seen in the other room and what they were seeing now. The entire city was submerged many hundred's of feet down at the bottom of an alien ocean. The water was held back by a forcefield and the power levels were patently insufficient to maintain that incredible sheild. As they watched the forcefield contracted in one area and another section of the city collapsed under the sudden influx of water. Moments later they felt the shockwave once again shaking the city beneath their feet.

Colonel Sumner reached for his radio, although what command he intended to give they would never know as another massive shockwave ripped through the city throwing everyone to their knees. Throughout the city both military and civilians grabbed onto anything that seemed to offer some semblance of security as the entire city seemed to be trying to shake itself apart.

The ground beneath them tipped at an alarming angle and suddenly everyone's ears popped with the sudden change in pressure as their stomach's seemed to drop away with a feeling akin to shooting up in an express elevator. Looking out through the large windows the command team had a front row seat as the city surged up from the floor of the ocean. The dim light inside the city brightened somewhat as the layer of water above their heads thinned until suddenly they found themselves blinded by sunlight. The spires of the city broke through the surface of the water and they found themselves looking out over the sparkling vista as water sheeted off the now floating city to rejoin the surrounding ocean.

They might have had more time before the city surfaced, more time to try to find a solution to the situation. Who knows what they might have been able to achieve in that time but unbeknownst to them the zero point module powering the city had been brought to the brink of collapse. The changes that Lantia had made to the forcefield to allow Sirius and Elizabeth to leave had used a massive amount of power, power that the virtually drained module could scarce afford.

There was one more surprise in store for the Atlantis expedition that day. It happened some two hours after the city had shot up from the depths like a cork from a bottle. Dr Grodin was working on the consoles in what they took to be the command station above the gate room when a small alarm sounded. Examining the unfamiliar displays it took him a little while to realise that there appeared to be a small craft homing in on the city from across the ocean. Immediately he grabbed up his radio and called Dr McKay to gateroom command.

Hearing the call the other members of the command team all converged on the young British scientist and he found himself once again the centre of attention with unwelcome news. Before he had time to speak however a loud scream of tortured metal echoed through the gateroom and as they all turned to look out over the banister rail their eyes were drawn to the roof which was slowly peeling back to reveal a massive opening in the ceiling.

"Close it!" Colonel Sumner rapped out the command but no one had a chance to even try to comply before a small, grey, cylindrical ship appeared in the gap and started to lower itself down into the heart of the gateroom.

**A/N :** Well there it is, let me know what you think, **Please Review**.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note : Apologies for the delay, unfortunately I had to go away to Germany for work and managed to lose the 2000 words I was able to write whilst I was there. It took me a while to recreate them to my satisfaction. Thanks to webpixie, jules3677, Mona, Neqs, EtherealSiren, ObscureStranger, babydoll8901, satine01 and Charlotte Thornton for your reviews, as always they are greatly appreciated.

Sorry webpixie, Harry is definitely not Daniel, I've got plans for him in the sequel / companion piece.

Neqs, thanks for your lovely comments, and I apologise for my previous author's note. I will endeavour to be less thin skinned in future.

EtherealSiren, yes Daniel was ascended for about the last year of time Sirius spent behind the veil, I think that seeing the regrets Sirius had for things left undone just gave him that tiny extra bit of confidence to ask Jack to come too. And yes there will be other slash pairings, I've got a pairing planned for Sirius but I prefer to work up to these things slowly, I might throw in one or two more of my favourites but I risk straying into 'unrealistically gay universe' territory.

Obscure Stranger, thank you, to be honest I had no intention of including anyone extra but I was watching Rising (again) to try to get things reasonably close to canon and it just hit me, what if Daniel simply said "Come with me!" after that I couldn't get the idea out of my head.

Everyone else, thank you for your kind comments, I hadn't realised it was that bad a cliffhanger, I'll try to behave better in the future.

Chapter 7

Elizabeth and the rest of the command team found themselves staring in through the large viewing window at the front of the small craft. There seated in what was obviously the pilot's seat was a man with long black hair and a neatly trimmed moustache and beard. As they watched the stranger brought the ship in for a gentle landing in front of the stargate where he shut off the engines and then mouthed something, although they couldn't hear what.

"What the!"

"Who!"

Burst from two mouths as Jack O'Neill and John Sheppard both reacted sharply to something only they could hear looking around wildly before focussing back on their radios as a sudden shriek of static indicated several people trying to transmit at once. Jack recovered first, years of dealing with the strangeness that was normality for gate travellers standing him in good stead and he raised his radio to his lips, keying the transmit button.

"Anyone who heard that voice to the gateroom, everyone else carry on with your assigned duties."

They watched as the man waved briefly from the cockpit before standing and making his way towards the rear of the craft. Colonel Sumner led the way down the steps from the command level with his P90 poised for action, closely followed by Elizabeth, John, Rodney, Jack and Daniel.

They were interrupted briefly by pounding footsteps as Carson Beckett charged out of one of the corridors leading into the interior of the city. As soon as he reached the small group he stopped, dropping his hands to his knees as he leaned forward panting heavily from the unaccustomed exertion. "Did any of you hear that?" he finally managed to gasp before finally dragging himself upright and freezing with a comical expression of shock on his features as he took in the ship which had appeared in the centre of the gateroom.

They turned away from the breathless Doctor as mechanical noises echoed through the large chamber indicating the ship had opened up. Moments later a figure appeared from the rear of the vehicle, tall, straight-backed and broad-shouldered with long, flowing black hair and enchanting grey eyes. He was dressed in black trousers, a charcoal grey, open-necked shirt under a black velvet vest and a long black velvet coat of distinctly vintage design.

Before anyone had time to react he stepped forward, clasping Elizabeth's hand eagerly with both of his before gently touching his fingers to her cheek as he gazed reverently into her eyes. "You must be Elizabeth, you have no idea how happy I am to see you."

The sight and sound of several very efficient looking muggle weapons being leveled at him brought Sirius back to his senses and releasing Elizabeth he stepped carefully back, holding his hands clear of his body in a gesture of peace.

"I'm so glad to see all of you," he continued looking around at the people arrayed before him. "You must be John Sheppard," he decided, nodding towards the youngest of the obviously military men before him, "and I'm assuming one of you is Colonel Marshall Sumner" his eyes flicked between the older two members of the military.

Colonel Sumner briefly lifted the barrel of his P90 in acknowledgment before levelling the weapon on the stranger once more. The mystery was too much for the breathless man standing behind the others and he gasped in his soft, Scottish brogue, "how d'ya know our names?"

The accent sparked immediate recognition within Sirius, "Ah-ha, you must be Carson Beckett. I'm very pleased to meet you." Sirius raked the group with his eyes, "that makes you," he settled on Rodney, "Dr Rodney McKay, I'm so very honoured to meet you!" And forgetting himself once more he enfolded Rodney's hand in both of his own for a brief moment.

The Stargate team shared a bemused look and Carson repeated, "OK, who the devil are you and how d'ya know who we are?"

Sirius just smiled and looked around them and at the other two soldiers who had returned to the gate room after hearing Lantia's voice in their heads. Nodding to the ship parked in the centre of the room he suggested "perhaps I could return the ship to the docking bay and then we can all sit down and talk, I have a lot to tell you."

The military men surrounding him all tensed at the thought of allowing this stranger in their midst back into his ship. Sirius noticed the reaction and acted quickly to dispel the tension, "maybe Major Sheppard would like to accompany me, I believe you're a pilot?" he added to the man in question.

John Sheppard's eyes lit up at the thought of viewing the interior of the alien craft, maybe even flying it. However he hesitated to accept the offer until Colonel Sumner, after looking thoughtful for several moments, nodded his agreement. Smiling widely the Major gestured towards the rear of the ship, "lead on."

Sirius paused only for a moment to speak aloud to Lantia, "can you direct these people to a room where we can all be comfortable."

This time the female voice was audible to all through the network of hidden speakers throughout the city. "Of course Sirius, I'll take them to your office."

Sirius hadn't known he had an office, but in the interests of presenting a united front he didn't quibble and simply led the Major into the ship where he gave the other man a quick tour of the craft before having him take the co-pilot's chair. A few more minutes were spent in explaining all the instruments available and how they reacted to the pilot's thoughts before he gently eased the ship off the deck and followed the lighted path to the hanger.

John watched enviously as Sirius piloted the craft with a gentle touch and the power of his mind. Oh, he just had to log himself some hours in one of these.

They set down with barely a bump in a large chamber and Sirius triggered the rear door. Together they walked down the ramp and around the vehicle to stand in the centre of the room. John spun slowly on his heel as he gazed in awe at the stacked ships around the walls.

As Sirius watched him he saw the same look in John's eye that he saw in Harry's when his god-son pored over the pictures of broomsticks in the latest edition of his Quidditch magazine with Ron. He couldn't get back to Harry, at least not any time soon, but he could make a life for himself here with these people. "I'll teach you to fly one later, if you'd like" he offered.

John whirled to face him, an expression on his face like a kid at Christmas, "you're on!" he exclaimed. "Come on, we'd better head back before the Colonel decides you've kidnapped me."

Sirius simply nodded and led the way out of the hanger bay. "Why did you do it?" Sirius asked as they walked, only realising at John's confused look that he'd only articulated half his question. "Why would you leave Earth and travel to another galaxy with no idea what you would find and no guarantee that you can ever return home?"

John thought about the question for the moment, about the way that General O'Neill had used shame and guilt to manipulate him into agreeing to join the expedition. "If I figure out the answer to that question then you'll be the first to know" he finally answered.

The answer seemed flippant and Sirius was inclined to take offence but as he looked at the other man's face he saw the thoughtful expression and accepted the answer. Sheppard's distraction gave him the chance to speak to Lantia before rejoining the rest of the Atlantis expedition command team and he called out in his mind, "Lantia, where is this office of mine then?"

To Sirius' great relief Lantia's reply was immediate, "it's the old administrator's office, I hope you don't mind. I didn't want any of them laying claim to it."

"That's fine," Sirius replied with a mental chuckle, "can you hear what they're talking about in there?"

"Of course I can." Lantia sounded almost affronted that there might be something going on in the city without her being aware of it. "They're mostly talking about you." Then Sirius heard the light tone of Lantia's laughter in his head. "One of them just suggested that you are the Guardian of Atlantis!" her voice rang in a portentous tone in his head for the last three words.

Sirius chuckled at that, but then he noticed the wistful note as Lantia's voice trailed off. Before even thinking about it Sirius found himself forming the words inside his mind, "would you like me to be your guardian?"

"I would like that very much, but as soon as these people find a way back to Earth you'll leave. They seem very determined, I doubt it will take very long." Her thoughts were so sad, Sirius felt for her, sleeping for ten thousand years before being awakened, only to face the prospect of being abandoned again when those who had awakened her left. "Even if they can't find a way home one of them is talking of something called the Daedalus which they are building. If they can't find a way home on their own then apparently this Daedalus will come to get them when it's complete."

Sirius felt hope once again rearing its head, however he had had a long time to think whilst he was alone on the mainland and this subject had occupied most of his time. Yes he would very much like to go home again, to see Harry and Moony once more, but they believed he had died 8 years ago. Maybe the Ancients had told them that he was still alive but Sirius doubted it. After all that they had seen in his head it seemed that the Ancients had no faith in the wizarding world to do what was right They seemed to be determined to keep Sirius safe and apparently they considered that the best way to do that was to keep him as far as possible from any wizards.

For eight years everyone he cared about had thought him dead, they had moved on with their lives. The war had to be over by now, either for good or for evil, and since the expedition team seemed to be as oblivious to the world of magic as muggles had been before Sirius left he strongly suspected that Harry had triumphed. As much as he wanted to go home he wasn't sure that he would be able to fit in anymore, it had been over twenty years since he had truly been a part of that world and it had changed, as had he. Realising just how long he had been silent Sirius formed the thoughts in his head, understanding that Lantia could easily distinguish those thoughts intended for her from his private thoughts. "Yes, I would like to go home, to see my god-son and my friend, but they have their own lives now and I'm not a part of that any more. If the opportunity arose I would like to go to visit them, to say goodbye, but only" Sirius strongly emphasized the word "only if I had a guarantee that I'd be able to come back here to you. I'd like to make a life for myself here, and if you'd have me I'd very much like to be your guardian."

Before Lantia could reply Sirius and John walked in to the office where a large crowd appeared to be awaiting them. Lantia remained silent but he could feel her glee bubbling in the back of his mind and it made it difficult for him to maintain a suitably dignified expression. Sirius crossed the room swiftly to stand behind the large desk of the administrators of Atlantis. He had not been in this office before but as soon as Lantia had told him where she had sent the expedition members to wait for him the details of its location and purpose had popped into his head.

John Sheppard crossed the room with him and came to a halt beside the desk where he leaned nonchalantly against a large piece of furniture. Sirius surveyed those arrayed before him and spreading his arms intoned "welcome to Atlantis!"

It never occurred to Elizabeth to doubt his right to welcome them to the city and as Sirius listened with half an ear she accepted his greeting and talked of their hopes of what they might find in the Pegasus galaxy. Sirius seated himself, happy in the knowledge that he had gained an advantage as she unconsciously granted him some level of authority within the city.

"That's all very well," the silver-haired man who Sirius had at first thought might be the one his Elizabeth had referred to as Colonel Sumner interrupted the woman. "But what we all want to know is who is this guy, how did he get here and who was that voice we all heard after he arrived?" As he said the last he gestured to those perched on any available surface around the room the majority of whom were nodding in eager agreement.

The fair-haired man stood at the older soldier's elbow spoke up, "as we appear to be the interlopers here perhaps it would be polite to introduce ourselves" he suggested pointedly. "My name is Daniel," he indicated the older man beside him, "this is Jack. Elizabeth, John Sheppard, Marshall Sumner, Rodney McKay and Carson Beckett you appear to recognise, that's Stackhouse and Markham." He completed the round of introductions and waited expectantly for Sirius to return the courtesy.

"My name is Sirius Black, the lovely lady who's voice you heard earlier is..."

"Don't tell them my name!" Lantia interrupted him sharply, her words clearly for him alone.

"The voice of the city, Atlantis," Sirius finished smoothly hoping that no-one had noticed his hesitation. He didn't know why Lantia didn't want them to know her true name but he trusted her on this and followed her lead.

"That's all very well," Sumner spoke up, apparently frustrated by the diplomatic pleasantries, "but it doesn't answer the question, how did you come to be here in the city, who are you?"

Sirius had given some thought to how much he could tell these people whilst he waited on the mainland for them to arrive. He had finally decided that the statute of secrecy could not be expected to hold this far from home. He sincerely doubted that the Ministry had any owls capable of flying the inter-stellar nay inter-galactic distances required to deliver a reprimand to him now.

"I am Sirius Black and I am a wizard." Sirius announced to be greeted by all the disbelief he could have wished for from his audience. His marauders soul danced a gleeful jig as Sumner demanded a sensible answer to his question, John and Jack both smirked at what they apparently considered a joke on his part, Elizabeth searched for words that would not sound like she doubted their host, McKay openly scoffed at the thought of magic, Carson crossed himself as he, Stackhouse and Markham simply stared at Sirius.

Standing once again Sirius moved out from behind the desk to stand beside John Sheppard in clear sight of all of those in the room. Looking around he quickly caught the eye of everyone present then with a brief push of power through his body his form shimmered and suddenly where he had stood there was now a large, shaggy black dog, his shoulders measuring around waist height on the man beside him.

All talk in the room stopped dead as the people gathered there registered his change. He held his animagus form for a full minute then with another brief push of magic he shimmered back into his normal shape. He was very pleased with his little demonstration, whilst on the mainland he had discovered an interesting side-effect of the changes that the Ancients had made to him whilst he slept behind the veil. Normally his animagus form was fairly stable, however he had discovered that while he still had just the one form, he had much more control over that form than he had previously had. The first time he had tried to shift without having his wand on him he had put in too much power and had found himself in the shape of a dog the size of a small horse. Playing around with how much power he used in the transformation he had discovered that by varying the power he could vary his size. He had pushed it up to the size of a large shire horse, and by using the barest whisper of power had transformed into a shaggy, black dog about the size of a Chihuahua. Suffice it to say that that was one form he never intended to be seen using in public.

The silence held as he moved back to take his seat once more. As he watched his stunned audience he noticed that one of the men, Daniel, seemed much less surprised by the whole demonstration than the others in the room. As they recovered Sirius discreetly watched Daniel, the man reminded him of someone but he couldn't quite determine who. Then as he registered the way the man had his arms wrapped around himself. He looked a lot like Harry, not physically, this man was tall, broad-shouldered and muscular, but there was something in the way he stood, the way he held himself, and something deep in his eyes that brought his god-son firmly into Sirius' mind.

Concerned at what that similarity could mean Sirius made a mental note to keep an eye on Daniel, and on the older man beside him, Jack. From his brief observations he had noticed that Jack was never far from Daniel, the others had apparently sat wherever they could find a space when they arrived in this office. Jack and Daniel however stood together, a little way apart from the others.

Sirius hoped that he might be imagining things, but with the knowledge of how he had failed Harry in the forefront of his mind he couldn't help but be concerned when he saw the same body language in this man. He resolved to be watchful and if this Jack had any part in putting that hunted look in Daniel's eye then Sirius would do whatever it took to help the younger man.

"How did he...?" someone finally muttered as Rodney burst out with "that's not possible, the laws of physics..."

Elizabeth managed to pull herself together enough to ask, "can everyone from your planet do that?"

Sirius just gave her a strange look before answering in a strangled voice "no." He seemed to struggle for a few moments against laughter before finally bringing himself sufficiently under control to expand. "I was born in Grimmauld Place, London in 1960. I lived there until I was 11 and started school at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Scotland. After that I only returned home for the summer holidays and after my 16th birthday I didn't even do that, I moved in with my best friend's family until I finished school." Sirius carried on to give them a brief history of his life up until the moment he fell through the veil in the Department of Mysteries.

"That was June 1996, Khala and the rest of her people... found me I guess... they examined my life and decided that things had gone badly wrong with the wizarding people of Earth. They took me apart and then put me back together again fixing all the damage that had been done to my body and mind. A week ago they sent me on through a new portal and I arrived here, that's when I met the city, Atlantis and you Elizabeth." Sirius stopped and a deathly silence fell as the others absorbed the meaning of what he had said.

"How...how could you have met me here a week ago?" Elizabeth eventually asked.

"Atlantis," Sirius stared into the middle distance as he spoke to the city "do you still have those recordings?"

"I do Sirius, would you like me to play them now?" Lantia asked in her soft voice and Sirius quickly agreed.

The lights in the room gently dimmed themselves and the images started to play, hovering just inches above the Sirius' desk. They saw Sirius standing next to a bed in which lay an incredibly old woman. They all listened, beyond shock after the events of the day as the scene played out in front of them. Some periods of time were compressed in the playback, those times when the older Elizabeth was sleeping, and Sirius noticed that somehow Lantia's name had become fuzzed out in the playback. Two hours later the recording ended with the image of Sirius carrying the elderly woman away and slowly the lights in the room came back up. It was only when the story was finished that anyone had time to realise that night had fallen outside the artificial light of the city.

Sirius had tears in his eyes as he watched the image fade. "We made it to the surface in time to watch the sunrise together, then Elizabeth slipped back to sleep as I flew us to the mainland." He paused briefly, obviously overcome by emotion. "When we arrived I tried to wake her, but..." He broke off with a sob, unable to continue.

For several minutes everyone sat around the room feeling increasingly uncomfortable as Sirius tried to staunch his tears but couldn't. All he'd lost, everyone he'd ever known and then the only human company he'd had in the last eight years, it all caught up to him and he wept for it all.

Looking around the room Jack realised that no-one knew quite what to do. Exasperated he stepped forward, skirting the desk to stand beside the sobbing man, laying a hand on his shoulder. "Daniel, come help me" he requested and together the two of them lifted Sirius to his feet.

With no idea where to take Sirius Jack lifted his eyes to address the city in the same way he had seen the wizard do it. "Atlantis," he called softly and was rewarded with a reply filled with sadness.

"Yes Jack."

"Can you direct us to Sirius' quarters?" he asked practically.

"Of course, follow the lights in the floor please."

And leaving the others to their silent contemplations Jack and Daniel helped Sirius from the room and along the short walk to a spacious apartment one floor above. Jack's first thought was that the room was very bare but then he recalled, as much as Sirius seemed to belong here, and as the city obviously wanted him to be there, he was only a recent immigrant like themselves. Looking around he saw a wide open living space with a comfortable seating area around a low table, on the other side of the room was a larger table surrounded by high backed chairs.

Leaving Daniel to support Sirius Jack went to investigate several doors in the surrounding walls, one led to what might be a kitchen, another room was clearly a bathroom and finally he found the bedroom. Surprised he noted that the bed appeared to be made up with crisp white covers, what kind of material could survive ten thousand years he wondered to himself as he beckoned Danny over and moved to turn down the bed.

Sirius had finally managed to recover himself somewhat now that he was away from the pitying eyes that had surrounded him in the office. Seeing the easy interaction between the two men who had helped him he realised that he had done Jack a grave injustice. The caring between the two men was clear, Jack could never have had any part in causing the worrying signs he had noticed in Daniel. He muttered an embarrassed thanks to the two men and just as they were leaving asked Lantia, "is there somewhere close by that they could stay?"

Lantia assented and the familiar lights lit up a path in the floor to the next apartment.

Jack and Daniel easily understood the other man's wish not to be completely alone and were perfectly happy to take the next apartment, especially if it was as spacious and pleasant as this one. They stepped through the door and were not disappointed.

Sirius meanwhile slowly stripped off his outer garments and slid into the large bed, grateful to note that the room Lantia had directed them too had an entire wall of glass overlooking the ocean beside the bed. There was no need to fear reminders of those bleak days and nights in Azkaban in this room and under the light of distant stars Sirius gently drifted off to sleep.

AN: There you go, a nice rounded ending, hope you enjoyed and please review. I'll be writing the next chapter of Life is Change next before I can get back to this, I just mention this so that you'll know (Mona) that weekly reviews, whilst great for my ego, will not get a new chapter up any quicker, sorry.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note :** Sorry it's taken me so long to write this chapter, I promise to try to do better in the future. Grateful thanks to **mishap, SakuraMona, wolfawaken, Mona, Charlotte Thornton **and** EtherealSiren** for your reviews, as always they are much appreciated.

Chapter 8

Sirius woke slowly as the warm rays of the sun played over his face. As he lay there, cocooned in comfort, it took him a few moments to remember that he was no longer alone on this planet, outlawed to the mainland. No, now he was back in the city, back with Lantia and there were over a hundred other men and women in the city too.

Almost afraid to open his eyes just in case it was all a dream Sirius lay still, reaching out with his mind, searching for Lantia's familiar presence.

"Good Morning Sirius." The warm, friendly voice in his head instantly reassured Sirius and he finally opened his eyes to see the spires of the city sparkling in the morning sun.

"Morning Lantia" he replied as he luxuriated in a bone-cracking stretch, a deep groan reverberating up from his chest as he stretched out the kinks from a heavy night's sleep. The emotional turmoil of the day before had taken its toll and he had scarcely moved from the moment he had laid down his head.

"How's everything going in the city?" Sirius asked, certain that Lantia would have kept an eye on the newcomers throughout the night and she didn't disappoint.

"They've made themselves at home on the dormitory level," she advised. "There have been soldiers patrolling all night and the scientists have been busy crawling all over this part of the city."

"Just this part of the city," Sirius was surprised, he'd expected them to spread like flies, they seemed very eager to learn all they could. "Haven't they discovered the travelling rooms yet?"

"Travelling rooms?" Lantia stalled for time.

"I don't know what you call them, you used one to get me to..." Sirius found that there was still a lump in his throat at the thought of the woman he had known for such a short time, "Elizabeth."

"The transporters." Lantia supplied, "I locked them out."

"Locked who out?"

"The transporters! No-one but you can use them at the moment," the city explained. "I didn't want these people wandering all over. The Atlanteans left some very dangerous things behind when they evacuated the Pegasus Galaxy."

"Good thinking." Sirius shifted around, piling up the available pillows behind his back, making himself comfortable. "So, I guess we have some time for a chat before I face the world."

"Of course! What did you want to talk about?"

"Well firstly, your name. Why didn't you want me to tell them your name." Sirius asked the question that had been bugging him since the issue came up yesterday. "It's not more of that, 'names have power!' nonsense is it?"

"'Names have power?" Lantia sounded confused, "no nothing like that. It's just that before he left Janus changed the security codes to access the central computer... Me! He changed all the passwords throughout the system to my name, I assume that he wanted to be sure that if their descendents ever did make it back to the city that they'd be able to access it's systems."

"Whoa, you mean when Khala gave me your name..." Sirius felt an immense wave of gratitude to the motherly Ancient roll over him once more as he thought of what might have happened if Lantia hadn't awoken when he arrived. A shiver ran down his spine as he realised that he would probably have died, trapped without food or water in a sunken city for a week waiting for the Atlantis expedition to arrive. Then the true horror struck as he thought about Elizabeth, waking, only to die alone in that small room where he had originally found her.

Dragging his mind away from the morbid subject Sirius shook off the cloud that threatened to descend over his mind, "right, what do we need to do about that, your name is bound to slip out in public sometime?"

"We change the passwords." Lantia sounded so matter of fact that Sirius couldn't suppress a chuckle.

"Of course we do, and how do we do that?"

"Well, first you need to choose a new password, something only you would know." Lantia requested.

Sirius thought hard, with his god-son on his mind his first impulse was to say 'Harry Potter' but that would be too easy. He wanted to get to know these people, they would be living and working in close proximity for a long time and he didn't want to have to watch every word he said about his past life. No he needed something unique to him, something comfortingly familiar from the life that he had left behind, but not something he would feel the need to discuss with his new companions.

Then it came to him, a memory from childhood that had stayed with him throughout the years. He remembered a dismal, rainy afternoon in the dim and dingy house in Grimmauld place where he had grown up. He couldn't have been more than seven years old and Regulus, his younger brother no more than five or six. He remembered that they were ill, a cold or some other childish ailment and they lay, two little boys, snuggled together under a heavy quilt on the sofa in his mother's sitting room. He didn't remember how it started, probably Regulus had asked for a story, but he remembered that they had whiled away the whole afternoon inventing stories about two little boys, Serious and Regular. Serious and Regular had had fantastic adventures all that afternoon, vanquishing muggles, slaying dragons and always making it home in time for pumpkin juice and chocolate frogs for tea.

Serious and Regular, two characters made up by two sick, little boys, for once feeling too unwell to fight and argue like they normally did. It was the only time that Sirius could remember getting along well with his brother and whilst it was a memory that he treasured, it was also something that he had never shared with another living soul. Even James had never heard the story and in the end they had been closer than Sirius and Regulus had ever been.

"Can it be a phrase?" he asked and with Lantia's aid 'Serious and Regular' became the new passcode to control the great and ancient city of Atlantis.

That done Sirius asked if there was anything else that they needed to deal with. Through his growing awareness of Lantia's consciousness he felt that she seemed almost nervous about something but just as he thought she was about to tell him what was on her mind, with an almost physical jolt she changed track. "Anything else will have to wait, Colonel Sumner seems anxious to see you, if we make him wait much longer I'm afraid he'll try something silly."

Instinctively Sirius looked towards the door in surprise, "is he outside, I didn't hear anything."

"No he's downstairs on the command deck, this floor contains the executive suite's it can only be accessed through the transporters." Lantia explained.

"Ahh!" Sirius understood immediately, "I suppose he thinks I've kidnapped Jack and Daniel."

"Jack and Daniel seem quite content where they are, they've been in touch with the Colonel by radio and besides asking me how you are doing this morning seem very happy to stay in their rooms together." Lantia assured him, "still, if you are getting up then I will let them know that they need to stop whatever it is that they're doing and be ready to accompany you in.. half an hour?"

"That'll be fine," and Sirius headed for the bathroom, it was only as he stood under a steady stream of water heated to exactly the right temperature that Sirius realised that more of the buried knowledge given him by the ancients had surfaced, this time simply day to day knowledge of the room layout and the shower controls.

As he thought back over Lantia's last words Sirius remembered the unusual, even for Lantia, level of curiosity he had felt from the computer as she mentioned 'whatever it was' that Jack and Daniel were doing next door. "By the way, what is it that they're doing?" he asked, feeling some curiosity himself.

"I don't know, they requested that I turn off any visual sensors in the room some time ago and I like them so I agreed. However I can override and turn them on again if you want me to, as my Guardian your orders outweigh anyone else in the city."

Lantia seemed strangely eager to turn those sensors back on and suddenly Sirius had a blinding flash of inspiration as to what the two men might be doing in the next room. That would certainly explain their closeness and with a chuckle he denied Lantia permission to reactivate those sensors, trust his luck to land up with the only voyeuristic city computer in the galaxy.

In the adjoining room two men lay curled together in the large bed, gazing out at the city before them. No matter how many alien worlds they visited it never failed to arouse a sense of awe in them as they looked out over a new planet, to bask in the light of suns many light-years distant from their own. And this time, to see the heart-stopping splendour before them and to know that this would be their home from now on evoked a feeling of reverence, even in Jack, a man not known for such emotions.

Lantia's clear voice chimed in Jack's head to let him know that Sirius was up and about, pulling Jack from his reverie. He gave the man in his arms a quick squeeze and dropped a kiss on the juncture of shoulder and neck, the only bare skin within easy reach before throwing back the quilt, "come on, Sirius is on the move, time to get up!"

Daniel groaned in mild annoyance. Eager as he was to explore this fantastic city, even with the prospect of an entire new galaxy to see, just lying here, finally enfolded in Jack's arms, he didn't want to move, ever.

Jack however was made of sterner stuff, besides he knew that if he didn't drag himself away then he might never let Daniel out of his arms again now that the younger man had finally relented. Finally agreed that they had done their part in the battle against the Goa'uld and the Ori, finally agreed that they could leave the restrictive confines of the American military, finally agreed that they could be together!

Rolling out of the bed Jack headed for the shower they had located before turning in the night before. As he went he tossed out the only incentive he knew would get Danny moving in the morning, "they're bound to have the coffee on downstairs by now!"

Vaguely disgruntled Daniel remained in bed for a few moments more. He'd long ago come to terms with the fact that Jack had the Ancient gene and he didn't, still having it rubbed in his face when the city spoke in Jack's head. Well, it was just plain rude. Hearing the water come on in through the open door to the bathroom Daniel knew he had a good ten minutes before Jack would return. "Lantia," he called out softly.

After a few moments silence Lantia replied through the speakers hidden in the head of the bed, "yes Daniel?"

"I know that you can talk with Jack, and all the other gene carriers telepathically, can I ask that you use your speakers when there are other, non gene carriers like myself present?" Daniel phrased his request carefully, it wouldn't do to antagonise the super computer who had control of everything from your life support to the temperature of the water in your morning shower.

There was a brief hesitation, and then in a slightly perplexed tone Lantia agreed, "of course, Daniel. I'm sorry if I've caused any offence."

"Not at all. Thank you Lantia." Daniel wondered briefly what could have caused the uncertainty in Lantia's voice but with so much to look forward to in the day ahead the notion quickly slipped his mind as he too clambered from the bed and prepared to face the day.

Lantia set herself a reminder, this was something she needed to discuss with Sirius. She could mention it straight away, but unlike her advanced circuits, Sirius could only process one thing at a time. She decided to wait until he could give the matter his full attention. At the same time as she was deciding this Lantia was also watching all the military and scientists within the city, monitoring environmental, sanitary and myriad other systems and also conducting conversations with a number of members of her new scientific community. Most notably with someone called Kavanagh, an interesting man, she would be pleased to devote more processing power to conversing with him when things were a little quieter.

Finally Sirius was shrugging into his long jacket and after a quick call to Jack and Daniel the three men met up in the corridor outside their rooms. They exchanged the usual pleasantries and then Sirius led the way to the transporter and all three men filed inside. Dredging up more of the knowledge implanted by the ancients Sirius operated the controls that would send them back down to the command level. Suddenly, just before the doors slid open Lantia's voice rang out through the speakers, "Sirius, watch out!" and they found themselves face to face with the business end of a rocket launcher wielded by a very angry looking Colonel Marshall Sumner.

Many would have been shocked into immobility when confronted by a man armed with a lethal weapon such as the rocket launcher before them. These men however had been immersed in war for much of their adult lives. Swearing Jack immediately stepped forward, dragging Daniel behind him, shielding the younger man's body with his own. Daniel however was having none of that and grabbing the back of Jack's shirt pulled him bodily over to the wall where the transporter door offered some protection.

Sirius flung out his right arm, fingers splayed and yelled the first spell that came to his mind, it was his god-son's old favourite "expelliarmus!" and he put all the considerable power at his disposal behind the command. The weapon was blasted out of the enraged Colonel's hands, flying several metres through the air before landing squarely in the arms of an astonished Rodney McKay. The Colonel himself was blown backwards by the impact of the spell, his fall broken by the front ranks of the small squad of soldiers he had formed up several yards behind him.

Rodney froze as the artillery piece landed in his arms, he hadn't been paying too much attention to what was going on around him. Instead he was intent on persuading Major Shepherd, as the strongest gene holder currently accessible, to come down to the science labs and play guinea pig for a while. His arguments concentrating on the importance of figuring out some of the systems and artefacts that they had uncovered in even the small part of the city that they had been allowed to explore.

Major Shepherd for his part, with no assigned role within the expedition structure had been hiding out in the armoury when the Colonel had marched in and seized the heaviest artillery that they had brought with them to this galaxy. Alarmed at the man's actions John had dispatched an airman to alert Elizabeth before following to see just what Sumner was up to.

Elizabeth Weir marched into the ensuing chaos several moments later, several soldiers were covering Sirius with their P90's whilst their comrades struggled to extricate themselves from beneath the unconscious body of their commanding officer. Meanwhile McKay was loudly freaking out about the kind of people who threw rocket launchers around in public hallways.

Sirius himself had followed up his first spell with a 'protego' which he now held, apparently effortlessly as he walked out of the transporter with Jack and Daniel following close behind. The older man was trying to dissuade Daniel from attempting to touch the strange blue forcefield that appeared to flow from Sirius' hand, the scientist's curiosity had clearly got the better of his common sense.

"What is going on here?" demanded the enraged expedition leader of the ranking, conscious, military officer present. Major Shepherd however was currently busy, making sure that ;the weapon in McKay's arms was made safe before lifting it clear of its resting place and calling over an enlisted man with orders to ensure that the item was returned immediately to the armoury.

With that done he was able to turn his attention to the questions being directed to him. Assuming a parade rest stance he relayed as much as he knew of what had happened. When he completed his recital Elizabeth turned to slowly survey the situation, immediately ordering the remaining soldiers to lower their weapons which were still trained on Sirius, Jack and Daniel. Ignored by the soldiers Elizabeth shot a quick glance at the Major who quickly backed up her order, following it with a command to get Sumner to the infirmary which was obeyed with alacrity. The Major might not be one of 'their' officers but he was still military and as such his commands carried weight, unlike those of the civilian expedition leader.

Soon the soldiers had hoisted their unconscious commanding officer in their arms and carried him swiftly away leaving only Elizabeth, Shepherd, McKay, Sirius, Jack and Daniel. As the threat lifted Sirius allowed the 'protego' to drop, the blue effect of the spell dissipating as he dropped his hand. "What the hell was all that about?" the angry wizard demanded, a slight tremor in his limbs from the excess of adrenaline coursing through his veins.

"It appears that Colonel Sumner grew concerned when he was unable to locate General O'Neill and Dr Jackson." Elizabeth explained, hoping that Sirius would accept the explanation whilst internally she seethed at the insanity of attempting to threaten a computer powerful enough to run an entire city.

Sirius wasn't satisfied with the explanation but before he had time to react he was brushed aside by six foot one and a half inches of angry mid-westerner. "That's not good enough Elizabeth, maintain control of your expedition members or you won't remain in charge long!" By now the furious man was towering over Elizabeth who stood her ground, fully aware of just how weak her position was but refusing to back down.

"Are you threatening me?" she asked.

"No Elizabeth, but we'll be back in touch with Earth eventually." Jack left the implied threat hanging in the air. "Sumner knew exactly where we were, we spoke to him by radio less than an hour ago and suddenly he's trying to blow up half the city with a rocket launcher!"

"It was hardly half the city." Elizabeth tried to reason with the angry man.

"When those doors opened that thing was pointing directly at Danny!" It was then that she realised that she was never going to win this argument, She wasn't quite sure what the relationship was between the two men, and she wasn't going to ask, but she knew the strength of the bond between all of the members of SG-1.

Lowering her eyes Elizabeth took half a pace backwards acknowledging her defeat. "I'll talk to him." she promised, adding a heartbeat later, "when he regains consciousness."

With the victory Jack finally calmed down, taking a step back himself he half turned to face Sirius and Daniel, "shall we?" he asked cordially, gesturing down the corridor.

As the three men were leaving Elizabeth called out, uncertainty obvious in her voice, "Sirius do you have a minute."

Although still somewhat angry at the recent confrontation Sirius couldn't help but remember the sacrifice that this woman had made in another timeline, giving up her life so that the expedition stood a chance of survival. With that in mind he faced her, "what is it?"

Daunted by the flinty look in those black eyes Elizabeth faltered before visibly gathering her courage, "I hoped you might be willing to fly me to the mainland?" she asked.

Daniel's sympathetic instincts were immediately triggered as he realised what she was asking for, he made to move towards her but was prevented by Jack's hand on his arm. This was between Sirius and Elizabeth although he and Danny would be there to offer their support of course. He wasn't quite sure how it had happened but he found himself identifying more with the dark haired wizard than with the expedition members.

Expecting some kind of censure for his actions that morning, Sirius was taken aback by the request, swallowing the lump in his throat at the thought of re-visiting the grave site he simply nodded his agreement.

Elizabeth nodded too, "thank you, shall I meet you in the gateroom in," she paused, checking her watch, "thirty minutes?"

"OK, make sure your soldier boys don't get in my way when I'm getting the ship." Sirius agreed harshly.

"Would you mind some company?"

Sirius spun around in surprise, he had forgotten Shepherd was still there, watching silently and taking everything in. He remembered offering to teach the other man how to fly one of the ships, this looked like a perfect opportunity to make good on the offer. "The more the merrier," he replied jovially "come on, I'll show you the controls, we can make this your first flying lesson."

At the choking sound from behind him he turned "you too Jack, we might as well make it a double lesson."

Suddenly Lantia spoke up in his head, "you should teach Daniel too."

Surprised Sirius didn't reply instead speaking directly to the young man stood as always at Jack's side. "Daniel, I didn't realise that you carried the blood of the Ancients!"

"What! No, I don't" Daniel burst out, "I wish I did, but I don't."

Sirius' eyes glazed over and he assumed that faraway expression which his companions were rapidly coming to understand meant that he was communing with the city.

"What's going on Lantia, I thought only the descendents of the Ancients could use their equipment?" Sirius asked silently.

"That's right, I was going to wait but I think this needs to be addressed sooner rather than later." Lantia explained her earlier concerns "Daniel has the Ancient gene..." picking up the questioning tone in Sirius' mind she clarified the unfamiliar term, "he carries the blood of the Ancients. I've scanned everyone in the expedition, he should be able to hear me, I didn't realise that he couldn't until this morning when he asked me to use the speakers when non-gene carriers like himself were present."

Sirius' gaze returned to the here and now as he examined the young archaeologist speculatively, "how is that possible? Surely he should know whether he has the gene or not."

"I don't know" replied Lantia, "but he knows my name!"

AN: Well there it is, hope you enjoyed it, please review!


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note :** Thank you to Charlotte Thornton, Harriverse, mithrilandtj, LadyOscar23 and KitaroJeevas for your reviews, as always they are much appreciated and highly motivational. Here is chapter 9, I hope you enjoy it, please review.

Chapter 9

Even to himself Sirius' mental voice sounded hurt "you told him your name?"

"No, that's my point, he addressed me as Lantia this morning when he asked me to use the speakers." Lantia tried to explain, "I don't think he even realised what he'd said, I tried to talk to him but he showed absolutely no sign that he could hear me. I re-ran the genetic scan, he has the gene, he should be able to hear me." Lantia was clearly distressed at the anomaly.

Sirius realised that everyone in the corridor was staring at him as he carried on the silent conversation with Lantia. "I'll meet you in front of the Astria Porta in thirty minutes," he nodded what was basically a dismissal to Elizabeth before turning back to Jack and Daniel, "let's take this somewhere a little less public shall we?" catching John Shepherd with his eyes he clearly included him in the invitation.

Elizabeth refused to be dismissed and made to follow the five men, Rodney having apparently decided to tag along as well.

Without even turning to look at her or breaking stride Sirius called back in a cold tone, "this does not concern you Elizabeth!"

Angry and a little surprised Elizabeth stopped, how had he even known she was following, she hadn't said anything and he hadn't looked at her since issuing his dismissal. "Anything that concerns the members of this expedition concerns me." she stated firmly.

Finally stopping Sirius turned to face her once more an expression on his face that was practically a smirk, "ahh, but Daniel isn't a member of your expedition is he!" and leaving the shocked woman standing stock still in the centre of the corridor he turned to leave once more. The other four men quickly followed him, only John Shepherd offering an apologetic shrug to her before he too left.

Striding quickly away down the hall Sirius was the very image of self-confidence, inside was another matter. Sirius was wracking his brains, desperately trying to decide where he should take the others for this discussion until Lantia came to his rescue once more reminding him that he had his own office if he needed somewhere private. Adjusting his course appropriately they soon found themselves back in the spacious room where Sirius had first made his incredible revelations on the previous day.

He looked around, taking in more details than he had managed to absorb on his previous visit. It was a large, square chamber, on one side the large desk behind which Sirius had sat yesterday. In front of the desk were two moulded chairs, the rest of the office was only sparsely furnished with a range of units around the walls, probably for storage Sirius assumed without giving it much thought. There was a round table in the far corner of the room surrounded by four chairs, they looked comfortable enough but the setting seemed rather more formal than Sirius was after. "I'm not sure this is going to work Lantia," he spoke aloud for both Daniel and Rodney's benefit, "we really need somewhere we can all relax for this."

"One moment Sirius," Lantia's bell like tones chimed through the chamber, there was a moments silence before the frosted glass wall across the back of the office that admitted a diffuse natural light began to slide aside. As the wall retreated a second room was revealed, about the same size as the first, bright and airy with the same clear glass wall as his bedchamber. The only furnishings consisted of a circular sofa in a sunken seating area. The flooring here was a luxuriously soft and deep carpeting in a pale cream colour and there was a small rack revealed as the wall completely withdrew which Sirius instantly knew was for shoe storage.

"This is perfect Lantia, thank you" Sirius expressed his appreciation as he briefly surveyed the amazing view before reaching down to yank off his boots and taking a seat. Jack and Daniel quickly followed his lead and settled on the sofa, not exactly cuddling but pressed close together at shoulder and thigh.

Sirius turned to see John and Rodney still standing in the main office looking uncomfortable, he was about to call them over but once again Jack beat him to the punch. "Come on guys, make yourselves comfortable, we don't have all that long."

At his words Rodney muttered something that sounded suspiciously like an obscenity before leaning down to pull at the laces of his heavy, military issue boots before toeing them off and moving to sit in the empty third of the sofa. John looked around once more before apparently throwing caution to the winds, removing his own boots and joining Rodney.

Looking around the small group Sirius felt a small inkling of the happiness that could lie in his future with men like these to call friends. Observing Jack and Daniel he felt more certain than ever that any grief in Daniel's past could not be laid at Jack's door and indeed the older man was probably the best chance Daniel had for a recovery. John seemed anxious in this company, Sirius supposed he could understand that, John was the only active member of the military in this group and that could put him in an awkward position. Still, what he had seen of the young pilot he liked and he hoped that they could be friends. Rodney was largely an unknown quantity, he had had nothing to do with the man on the previous day and he wasn't entirely sure why he hadn't objected to the man accompanying them. The only thing he could put it down to was the older Elizabeth's account of the man's bravery as he gave his own life to buy time for the other expedition members to get away on that ill-fated first arrival in the city.

Sitting forward with his elbows on his knees, chin supported on his steepled hands Sirius focussed all his attention on Daniel. "So, you seem certain that you don't have this 'Ancient gene' but Lantia scanned you and is just as certain that you do have it. One of you must be wrong and much as I like you Daniel I'm backing the city sized computer!"

Daniel gave a wry grin, "I see what you mean, I don't know what to tell you, I've never been able to make any Ancient artefact respond to me so..." Daniel broke off, spreading his hands with a slight shrug in a gesture that seemed to say 'what can you do?'

Now Sirius was confused, "Lantia talks of scanning your blood, do your people not have such tests, must they simply rely on whether an... an artefact responds to you or not?"

The other four men all reacted similarly from a crack of outright laughter from Jack to a smile and a helpless shrug from Daniel, but it was Rodney who answered, "Oh they have DNA tests, but they cost money, blasted bean-counters aren't going to sign off on a series of expensive tests when they can just shove an artefact into your hand and see if it lights up!"

"Ahhh," Sirius nodded in understanding, the evils of bureaucracy clearly transcended cultural barriers. "In that case I think we can agree that you probably do have the gene, would Dr Beckett have the facilities here to perform the tests to confirm that?"

Daniel sat forward now, blue eyes sparkling with enthusiasm "I have the gene!" awe filled his voice but then just as suddenly the light within him died and he slumped back in his seat, "what good does it do me if it's dormant!"

"I can show Dr Beckett how to use the equipment in the labs to verify my scans," Lantia chipped in, filling the silence as none of the men quite knew how to react in the face of Daniel's dejection.

"If Daniel has the gene then there must be some way to... I don't know... unlock it!" Jack stated decisively and twisting in his place he gently grasped Daniel's upper arm, pulling the younger man in towards himself, his attention solely focussed on the man beside him, "we will figure this out."

Slowly Daniel's chin raised from his chest and blue eyes locked with blue. He seemed to be searching Jack's face for something and the other three men in the room sat in unmoving silence not wanting to interrupt this moment. Finally he gave a small nod and seemed to shake off the down-hearted mood and taking Jack's resolve to bolster his own he turned back to Sirius, "right! what do we do next?"

"Well now, I have an idea about that, but I want to try something with John and Jack first" and Sirius's eyes flickered between the two men Jack to his right, John to his left.

"If it will help Daniel then of course but..." John quickly gave his permission although he looked uncharacteristically uncertain, "why Jack and me?"

"Because you two are the ones here with the active gene." Sirius stated simply.

"But you have the gene too." Rodney was quick to point out, "you can interact directly with..." he paused, stumbling over the unfamiliar name "Lantia, with the city, with that shuttle craft you arrived in, with..." He stopped, not so much at a loss for words but more having so many words he didn't know what to say first. Still his outflung arms made his meaning clear and Sirius simply agreed.

"Exactly... Jack?" his voice questioning as he turned to the older man, Jack and Daniel had ended their private moment and were both watching him with matching expressions of cautious hope on their faces.

"What do you need?" Jack asked, his agreement immediate and not requiring words.

Standing Sirius gestured to the space before him, "I need both of you to stand here."

Both men complied and Sirius braced himself, holding his arms up, palms facing the two men as he carefully tamped down his magic, not wanting to use too much he gathered himself, holding his intent clearly in the forefront of his mind and pushing a small amount of magic at the two men muttered "Specialis Revelio".

As the words fell from his lips a pale green glow enveloped each man, as the others watched the glow sank into the two men's bodies, brightening and intensifying as it did so, leaving a tracery of emerald green light throughout their bodies until it stabilised as a emerald green knot of pulsing light in the region of each man's chest, the heart of a web of light that permeated their entire bodies.

With a sigh of satisfaction and a small smile curling his lips Sirius let his arms drop and the glowing light's faded, "I knew it!" and he suddenly punched the air in triumph the small smile exploding into a massive grin as before the other's knew what was happening he stepped forward and enfolded both men in a jubilant hug. "You're both wizards" he exclaimed joyfully and tightened his hug briefly as the other two men's discomfort at the close proximity suddenly changed to shock.

"WHAT!" All four men yelled simultaneously as Daniel and Rodney surged to their feet.

Sirius started to explain but was immediately cut off by Lantia, "Sirius, Elizabeth is waiting for you in the gateroom, she seems to be getting impatient."

Releasing his hold on the two newly discovered wizards he pulled an old fob watch out of his waistcoat pocket. Sirius saw that he was ten minutes late for his appointment. "Come on, we'll have to continue this on the mainland." and climbing out of the sunken seating area he quickly pulled on his boots. The other men stood, stunned, crowded together in the small amount of space available inside the circle formed by the sofa.

Looking back at them when he had finally got his boots on Sirius wanted to laugh, the four of them were so different and yet so similar as each stood with a dumb-struck expression on his face. "Well, are you coming?" he asked playfully and his words broke the spell holding the others captive.

Ten minutes later, twenty minutes late, Sirius gently touched the shuttle craft down in the centre of the gate room where an impatient Elizabeth stood waiting for him. In the co-pilot's seat was Jack having pulled rank on the younger pilot. John had put up a spirited defence, insisting that as a serving officer of the US Air Force he should have precedence. Jack, of course, ignored any such suggestion and simply settled himself into the second seat with Daniel standing close behind so that he could survey the controls over his partner's shoulder. Grumbling quietly to himself the younger pilot had taken his place behind Sirius and avidly watched every move he had made.

Rodney, eschewing the crowd in the cockpit had instead spent the short flight investigating the other systems within the craft, moving quickly to examine the door controls as the rear of the craft opened to admit the civilian administrative leader of the expedition.

Elizabeth entered the shuttle, clearly still annoyed but trying to present a calm front. Standing awkwardly in the middle of the cabin she looked around herself. She didn't know exactly what she had expected but it wasn't to be ignored but that was exactly what was happening. Rodney was busy poking through the circuits near the rear of the craft whereas John, Jack and Daniel were listening, engrossed, as Sirius explained the controls and the technique required to fly the little ship.

Clearing her throat received no response so Elizabeth called out firmly, "Thank you for this Sirius," but the only response was a hand waved vaguely in her general direction as the lecture up front continued. Feeling strangely helpless Elizabeth simply seated herself on one of the benches running the length of the cabin as the rear doors began to close and she settled herself in for the long ride to the mainland.

Sirius was enjoying himself hugely, the other men had spent the entire walk to the shuttle bay clamouring for information about how John and Jack could possibly be wizards. The only thing that had shut them up was entering the small shuttle where their questions immediately shifted to focus on the incredible craft in which they found themselves. He had been fully aware as Elizabeth entered, but much as he had liked her older counterpart he found this younger version to be rather brash and annoying. It had been far too long since he had pranked anyone, ignoring Elizabeth would be a good way to ease back into his marauder's role gently and he hoped it would provide some interesting entertainment.

He was right, by the time the touched down in the small clearing that had been his home for the previous week Elizabeth was positively fuming, she was not a woman who was used to being ignored. Taking pity on her he uttered a low voiced suggestion to the others that they take a look around the campsite before he offered his arm to Elizabeth and courteously led her out of the shuttle and up onto the small rise that overlooked his camp ground. At the top he led her to the low mound of stones that marked the final resting place of her older self and there he left her, slipping away quietly so that she could mourn, or simply commune with her alternate self in peace.

It was strange to think that it had only been one night since he had left this place, already there was scarcely any sign to show anyone had lived there. Some animal had obviously been through in the night and his cot bed was overturned and broken, the stones that had circled his cooking fire were disarranged, probably by some animal rooting around for food scraps and the only other sign of his presence was the beaten down foliage where the shuttle had sat for the week he had waited there and that was already springing back upright, striving for the sunlight.

Gathering up the others he led them over to the far side of the camp where they settled in the shade of the trees at the edge of the clearing, it was only mid-morning but the sun was already high in the sky making it uncomfortably warm out of the shade.

"Right, where was I?" he asked rhetorically and before anyone could answer he carried on, "Oh yes, you, John and Jack are both wizards..."

"How is that possible?" Jack interrupted before Sirius could say any more, "I can't do that... that... dog thing!" and his gesture encompassed Sirius' entire form.

Sirius just chuckled, "Well no, a lot of wizards can't do that, it takes a lot of effort to learn the animagus transformation, I had good friends and a strong motivation to help me learn, but don't worry, it's possible that one day you will both be able to do that, and much more besides if we can just unblock your magic."

Jack and John just stood there, struck dumb by the implications of Sirius' words so it was left to Rodney to ask "What do you mean, unblock their magic, and what does any of this have to do with Daniel?"

Sirius settled himself more comfortably against the tree trunk where he was leaning, taking a moment to look up towards the place where he had left Elizabeth. Seeing the woman was still seated by the grave he turned back to his companions to embark on yet more explanations. "That spell I cast back on the city, it reveals what is special about the person or object it's cast on. I was thinking specifically about magical potential as I cast it, that green glow was the faint trickle of magic running through your bodies. The green ball in your chests, that was your magical core." he looked about him to see if he was being understood, seeing his audience watching with rapt attention he carried on. "All wizarding governments keep a watch out for magical children born to non-magical parents although when they identify such a child different countries have different policies. In the United States they have special teams, they call them first contact teams..." Sirius stopped as his audience reacted as one with a brief choke of laughter at his words. He looked at the men around him for an explanation but none was forth-coming, instead Jack, as the de-facto leader of the group, simply waved for him to continue.

Shaking his head at the strangeness of muggles he went on, "well, these teams contact families and explain about the wizarding world and then they are given a choice. They can either sign the statute of secrecy and agree to send the child to a suitable wizarding school when the time comes, or they can refuse to sign, opting to try to make it on their own." Here Sirius paused, wondering how they would take what he had to say next. 'Only one way to find out!' he thought to himself before continuing. "If the families opt to go it alone they are generally obliviated, all memories of the child's magic and of what they have been told is taken away and the child's magic is bound. I believe that that is what happened to both of you, I should be able to release the binding but I'd prefer to do that back in the city, close to your medical personnel."

John had listened quietly to everything Sirius had to say. Now he sat, one hand rubbing unconsciously over the place on his chest where that glowing green ball had appeared. It was astounding to him to think that he had the potential to perform magic, but even more than that he was angry at what he had missed out on. Knowing his father he doubted that the authorities would have needed to be underhanded about this obliviation and binding. His father would probably have demanded that something of the sort be done, he certainly would not have accepted anything so freakish in his son. Looking up from his contemplations his eyes fell on Daniel who even in such a tranquil setting still looked extremely anxious as he sat beside Jack, his arms wrapped around himself in what John recognised from his brief time in Antarctica as classic Daniel self-hugging. "That's all very well, but what about Daniel?" he asked, knowing that the other man would not ask for himself.

"Ah, that's what I'd like to find out!" stated Sirius eagerly, "Daniel, may I cast the same spell on you that I used on Jack and John?"

Alarmed Daniel's eyes flew to Jack's face and he made to push himself backwards away from the group. "No!" the whispered word shocked the group as much as Daniel's reaction as the archaeologist scrambled to his feet and hurriedly backed away looking terrified and muttering the same one word under his breath repeatedly, "no, no, no."

Jack had been so wrapped up in the revelations of the day that he had lost track of what this might mean to Danny. Now he was suddenly shocked out of his self-absorption by Danny's strange reaction to Sirius' request, with a muttered "wait here" he climbed stiffly to his feet and followed his best friend, the man he hoped would soon be his lover. Carefully he approached the panicked man, holding his hands clear of his body he tried to catch Danny's eyes but the other man stared resolutely at a spot around the level of Jack's knees. As Jack moved closer he spoke the other man's name in a low soothing voice and slowly Danny stopped moving allowing the older man to approach. Finally they stood, about twenty-five feet from the rest of the group, tentatively Jack reached forwards , pleased when Danny allowed him to rest his hands on Danny's upper arms where he started a soothing rubbing motion as he stepped in even closer so that as Danny finally dropped his self-hug Jack was able to move those last few inches and initiate a hug of his own, wrapping his arms around the man more important to him than anyone else in this or any other galaxy and enfolding him in a warm embrace that conveyed all the love and acceptance that Jack could never adequately put into words.

For long minutes they just stood there until Danny eventually raised his arms and still trembling in Jack's arms, he returned the embrace. Still they stood there and the others sat in silence and watched, awed by the emotion of the moment. Finally Jack felt the fine tremors that wracked his young lover's body subside and slowly he pulled back, just far enough to be able to look into Danny's downcast eyes. He felt his heart break anew at the sight of the tear tracks running down that beloved face and crooning soothing nothings he carefully wiped them away. "What's wrong Danny?" he finally asked, "don't you want to know what's happening here?"

The implication that there was some knowledge that Danny wasn't prepared to investigate sparked an immediate reaction as he'd known it would and Danny's head flew up, blue eyes searching Jack's face though for what he couldn't say. "It's not that," he muttered, "why would my parents choose this for me? Why wouldn't they want me to learn about this, to be the person I was meant to be?" And Jack's heart ached at how lost Danny sounded just then.

He'd been thinking this over as they stood there waiting for Danny to calm down enough to talk and he thought he had an answer, he just hoped that it would be enough. "Your family travelled a lot when you were small right?" he asked quietly and Danny responded with an almost imperceptible nod. Nodding along Jack continued, "well, what if you were overseas when this magical thing first made itself known, what if it was some other government that approached your parents." He paused to see if he was getting though and seeing Danny's nods getting stronger, more positive he carried on. "Isn't it possible that they wanted to wait until they got back to the States, to follow this up with their own government." He waited, giving Danny time to think on what he had said.

"You think they were blind-sided, their memories removed and this was done to me without their knowledge?" Danny asked, hope now making itself plain in his features.

"I think it's possible" Jack confirmed "now shall we go and let Sirius do his thing" and he waved his fingers in a hocus pocus gesture that had Daniel chuckling as they walked back to the other men.

Seeing them returning the others had all scrambled to their feet to await them. Jack and Daniel came to a stop immediately in front of Sirius who simply asked "are you sure about this Daniel?" Daniel nodded firmly and at a word from Sirius Jack stepped back leaving Daniel standing alone, looking insanely vulnerable as he visibly braced himself for what was coming.

Slowly Sirius raised his hand as he had done before, back in the city, formulating his wish clearly in his head he uttered the words again, "Specialis Revelio".

The familiar green glow immediately cloaked Daniel, but this time as it sunk into his body there was no glowing tracery left behind, instead the light retreated entirely, leaving only an incredibly bright ball of light shining painfully strongly from the centre of his chest. Quickly Sirius dropped his hand releasing the spell so that the light dissipated although it had been so bright that he had a black spot burned into his vision for several minutes after the glow had faded. As soon as he did so Jack stepped back in, gathering Danny into an all enveloping hug once again.

Confused Rodney looked from Daniel to Sirius and back again, "what does that mean?" he asked.

"It means that Daniel is a wizard " Sirius confirmed, adding "but his magic has been bound differently, tighter than the others."

Looking up Jack asked the question that everyone wanted to know the answer to, "you can still reverse it, can't you?"

Sirius looked thoughtful for a while, medical spellwork had never been his forte in school although he had improved in later years during auror training. "I believe so, but not here." He looked like he wanted to expand further but was stopped by a sudden klaxon sound blaring from the shuttle craft across the clearing.

He had never heard a sound like that from the ships but it was not a sound that you could ever imagine heralding good news. Taking off at a run he was very quickly sliding into the pilot seat and punching the red button shining brightly on the console in front of him. As soon as he did so Lantia's voice filled the small craft "Sirius you have to get back here, Colonel Sumner has woken up, he's taken a team through the Astria Porta!" Elizabeth was the last to make it back to the shuttle and was only in time to hear the last few words.

"The Astria Porta?" she asked uncertainly and was answered immediately by five voices.

"The Stargate!"

**AN:** Well there it is, what do you think? please review.


	10. Chapter 10

Author's Note :- Thank you to **gennastar, lalachoa, Hocapontas, iwannabeX, Shannon Dee** and **Fan** for your reviews, as always they make it worth the effort of getting my ideas down in writing. I'm sorry to disappoint but at this point I have to say that Daniel is NOT Harry! Apologies for those hoping for that twist but I have other plans for Harry in a companion piece I hope to write when this is complete.

**iwannabeX**, I have tried to take your comments on board. The sad truth is that I just don't like Weir. I've tried to be a little more fair to her this chapter, hopefully you'll feel I've redeemed myself somewhat without actually back-pedalling. The truth is I have an outline of how this story will go in my head, and whilst I am eager for feedback and will take any comments into consideration I'm unlikely to be influenced into a complete about-face as to where I want my story to go.

Only a short chapter this time but it's been a long while coming and I hope it doesn't disappoint.

Chapter 10

"Who has taken a team through the Stargate?" Elizabeth asked, not having caught all of Lantia's message.

It was Jack who replied with a single word, "Sumner!"

With a last, longing look at the hilltop where the grave of her older self lay Elizabeth took a deep breath before walking resolutely onto the shuttle and requesting that Sirius pilot them back to the city. She had been feeling strangely disconnected since Sirius' revelations of the previous day, seeing herself looking so elderly and frail had been a shock to the system and it was only now, after having the opportunity to spend some time alone in silent thought that she was beginning to regain her mental equilibrium.

She hadn't authorised any gate missions, hell they hadn't even finalised the gate teams. What was Sumner playing at? The man had been behaving irrationally practically since they had arrived, waving a rocket launcher around inside the city that was to be their new home, and now this. Elizabeth resolved that as soon as they had Sumner back in the city she would have him consigned to Dr Beckett's care for a full medical workup.

A slight jolt pulled Elizabeth from her abstraction and looking out of the large viewing window at the front of the craft she realised that they were already underway, heading back to the city, the sea flashing past some forty feet beneath them. Moving forward to stand behind Sirius in the pilot seat she was somewhat surprised when Jack immediately stood, ceding his chair to her.

No-one had ever accused Jack of failing to play the game fairly, at least not justly. This morning had been one thing, basically a pleasure cruise to familiarise themselves with the little craft and to take a stroll on the mainland of their new home planet. It had been perfectly fair then to tease Elizabeth, a little retaliation for the perceived lack of support when Sumner had attacked Sirius. This was different however, now there was an ongoing incident which she needed to deal with as the civilian leader of the expedition and Jack and the others could not do otherwise than to offer their full support.

As Elizabeth settled in her seat Sirius gestured towards the console before them anticipating her first request, "Lantia, Elizabeth is here, can you tell us exactly what happened?"

"Of course Sirius" and immediately Lantia began to relate the events that followed the shuttle's departure from the city. Colonel Sumner had begun to come round as the soldiers were carrying him to the infirmary, as he realised he was being carried he had objected vehemently until the men had had no choice but to put him on his feet where he wobbled slightly but managed to remain upright. Correctly guessing that the Colonel would object equally strongly to their destination the officer in charge of the contingent of men made no mention of that and simply guided the, still slightly groggy, Colonel onwards.

It was only when they reached the infirmary doors that Sumner realised where they were heading and by that time it was too late as Lieutenant Ford hustled him through the doors calling for Dr Beckett. Knowing how undignified it would look to object now Sumner submitted with poor grace as he was directed to sit on one of the diagnostic beds whilst the Lieutenant recounted the earlier events. Whilst the Doctor examined Colonel Sumner Lantia let these events slip away from her primary consciousness.

The truth was that even her amazing processing power was being pushed to the limit. The city had been abandoned for over ten thousand years and there was a lot of maintenance that needed to be done and very little power available to do it. The one remaining ZPM powering the city was dangerously close to being drained and in order to conserve power she had been forced to switch off most of her more powerful processing modules, relying on autonomous slave systems to monitor vital services and alert in case of emergency.

And then there were the people, over a hundred of them and they all had questions about the city, the planet, the galaxy. Lantia was used to dealing with a city of thousands but most of them needed very little from her in their day to day lives. These people however wanted to know everything and they wanted to know it now! Most unnerving of all, virtually none of these people carried the blood of the Ancients. Or at least if they did it wasn't strong enough to allow them to interact mentally with Lantia, so she had to monitor other systems, manipulate hidden speakers to interact with them instead of the almost effortless mental communication she was used to.

And so it was that once Colonel Sumner was safe in the hands of the medical personnel Lantia withdrew her immediate attention from the infirmary and turned to the many other tasks requiring her time. Which was why she failed to realise what was happening until the wormhole of the stargate whooshed into being, by which time it was too late to do anything to prevent the Colonel from taking a team offworld.

Colonel Sumner had got away from the medics as quickly as possible, most of his entourage had melted away once they had got him to the infirmary, only his right hand man remained, Sergeant Bates had been with the Colonel for a long time, they made a good team, both career military and each as ruthless as the other in pursuit of their duty. Now as they hurried away from the infirmary Sumner rapped out his instructions to the other man, "gather the men, we came to Atlantis for a reason, and it's time we stopped sightseeing in a dead city and got on with our mission!"

With only a sharply rapped out "Sir!" as acknowledgement Bates smartly reversed course and headed off to collect the two men he and the Colonel had decided would round out their lead gate team. Chapman and Wright had been with the Colonel almost as long as Bates had. Coming up through basic training together they had forged a strong bond and in Colonel Sumner they had found a man they could follow wholeheartedly. A more compassionate leader might have tempered their fierce belief in the 'Might is Right' ethos, giving them a strong moral compass whilst introducing them to the concepts of tolerance and diplomacy. Sumner, a strong leader and rigid disciplinarian however had merely reinforced their worst character traits whilst stifling any flexibility in their, already restricted, mindset until now they were little more than bully boys hiding behind a thin veneer of patriotism.

Trusting Bates to find Chapman and Wright, and to collect appropriate weapons for their first gate mission in the Pegasus galaxy, Sumner strode on looking for the final ingredient for a successful gate team. Finally he spotted what he was looking for, a scrawny, slightly scruffy man with longish hair and wire-framed glasses and a taller, younger man with a slicked back ponytail, "scientists" he muttered, his distaste obvious as he spat the word. The two science types were stood in front of a darkened panel, apparently engrossed in a low voiced argument. Supremely uninterested in whatever two geeks might be arguing about Sumner marched up to them and sliced through their words with a sharp "To the gateroom!" When they didn't react quickly enough for his liking he rapped out "NOW!" before making a small concession to the fact that these were not soldiers "our mission is to explore this galaxy, to do that we need a functioning gate!"

Turning on his heel he headed straight to the gateroom without even checking to see that his two victims were following him. Exchanging a mystified look the two men hurried to catch up, falling into step behind him. On reaching their destination the Colonel stopped so abruptly that the two following him barely halted their hurrying steps in time to avoid a collision. When they didn't move quickly enough for his satisfaction he barked "Well!" with a significant look towards the silent, empty ring of the stargate and they swiftly moved to do his bidding.

Lantia had locked out the stargate and left a slave process to monitor it whilst she concentrated her attention elsewhere. Unfortunately she hadn't realised just how much experience some of the Earth scientists had with Ancient technology and more by luck than judgment Sumner had snagged two of the best to work on the gate. They quickly spotted and bypassed the monitoring process and by the time Bates arrived, heavily armed and carrying more weapons for his commanding officer, with two equally well-armed soldiers following on his heels, they were just finishing up the final diagnostics and were able to declare the gate fully functioning.

Whilst waiting for the others to complete their assigned tasks Sumner had been poring over the library of gate addresses that had been found in the consoles of the control room. Seeing his team assembled he stabbed the screen with a finger, "that one! start dialling!" A fickle fate directed his finger to the only address on the list that would possibly get a lock and before Lantia realised that her slave process had been bypassed the wormhole was established and there was nothing she could do to close it down.

As he was about to order his team through the gate Sumner was stopped by a nagging doubt that he'd long learned not to ignore. His eye settled on the two scientists who were anxiously fidgeting, obviously eager to be off doing other things and he swiftly evaluated the two men. One older, more experienced but less physically fit, the other younger, taller, looked to be in better condition, less likely to slow them down. His decision was easy and he pointed to the younger man "you're with me!" Sirius and the others in the shuttlecraft watched in horror as Lantia displayed the few moments of footage she'd captured once her attention was dragged back to the stargate and they saw Sumner grab Kavanagh by the arm and propel him before him through the event horizon.

AN : There it is, I really hope you enjoyed it, please review.


	11. Chapter 11

Author's Note : Thank you to SelenaWolf, Fan and Wanda for your reviews, gratefully recieved as always. SelenaWolf, I'm afraid you'll have to hold your curiosity in check a little longer, Sirius won't be alone for ever but it'll take a little time before he meets the right person. Fan, glad you're still enjoying the story, and I have to agree with you, a lot of the animosity I feel for Weir most likely stems from the way she was first introduced. Wanda, although Harry won't appear in this story I am toying with the idea of writing a companion piece to run along side this one showing what was happening with Harry whilst all this was going on, not quite sure how to resolve the timelines but I'll be thinking on it.

Sorry for such a long Authors note, please enjoy the chapter, I look forward to reading your reviews when you're done.

Chapter 11

The rest of the trip back to the city was spent in tense silence, every person in the shuttle craft lost in their own thoughts.

As they finally approached the central tower Elizabeth left her seat in the cockpit to speak to the men in the back of the craft. As she did so she laid a hand briefly on Sirius' shoulder, a silent thanks for so many things.

"Shepherd, as soon as we land I need you to get your team together and go bring back Sumner."

"Yes ma'am" he replied smartly before turning to Jack, "General O'Neill, you want to come with?" he asked but Elizabeth interrupted before the General had a chance to answer.

"Jack will be staying in the city" she stated, Jack looked mutinous and seemed to be about to argue but a light touch on his arm from Daniel who was seated beside him was all it took to restrain him giving Elizabeth time to offer an explanation. "The Military leader of this expedition has gone off the rails, I'm sending the next highest ranking officer to go get him, I need someone who will have the men's respect to take over the military leadership if anything goes awry. Jack stays."

At her words Jack subsided and John, knowing a lost cause when he saw one turned to his next pick. "Sirius, you want to join the party?" The shuttlecraft had landed and Sirius had left the cockpit to stand beside Elizabeth. He looked surprised at the invitation but eagerly accepted and with a nod John turned to Rodney seated beside him, "Well Rodney?"

"Huh?" came the eloquent reply.

"Are you ready for your first mission through the Stargate?" John clarified at Rodney's questioning look.

"I'm sorry Major, but my place is here in the city, I have work to do" and standing Rodney hit the control for the ramp at the rear of the shuttle.

"Rodney," John called him back, "standard operating procedure requires a member of the science team on each gate team." He stated.

Before Rodney could answer Daniel was on his feet, hand raised tentatively in the air, "I'll go." he offered.

"There you are," Rodney gestured vaguely in Daniel's direction, "you have a willing volunteer." and turning he made to leave the shuttle but John's voice pulled him back.

"Rodney, a member of your science team has been taken off-world against his will and by force by a man whose behaviour since we arrived has been erratic at best and..." he trailed off, balking at outright insults to a commanding office, even one who was completely cracked! "well you get the picture."

"And!" asked Rodney defiantly, his body language clearly conveying his desire to be anywhere else other than here discussing this.

"OK, firstly, Daniel I appreciate the offer, but at the moment your expertise can be best used here in the city helping Lantia." 'and besides,' he added silently, 'do you really think the General is going to let you go off-world without him?'

"Rodney, you need to do this, we're essentially going on a rescue mission for one of the scientists under your command, he's your responsibility, right now your place is on this team, going to get Kavanagh." To Shepherd's consternation Rodney showed no sign of wavering, it was unthinkable to him not to go after a man under his command who was in trouble but apparently scientists didn't work that way.

He was about to try again when Sirius spoke up.

"Rodney," he said with his head cocked slightly in the way that indicated Lantia was speaking in his ear. "Lantia likes Kavanagh," he paused "a lot!"

"Huh?" grunted Rodney again obviously questioning what that had to do with anything.

"You know Lantia, giant city wide computer, has complete control of the water in your shower, the air in your quarters..." he paused again a small frown appearing between his brows, apparently something Lantia had said confused him but he continued anyway, "the... the lemon in your tea?" Sirius quite liked lemon tea, James' mother had made it for them sometimes when they were younger so he did not understand the look of horror or the way all the blood seemed to drain from Rodney's face leaving him chalk white. It seemed Lantia knew what she was doing so he carried on following her prompting, "Yes, she spent quite a while talking to him yesterday evening, she found him interesting and would like to continue the conversation."

Rodney gulped, "I see, in that case I may need to spend some time getting to know him myself." he finally responded, "I'll be happy to join you Major."

"Excellent, gather your gear we'll meet back here in twenty minutes. And Rodney, don't forget to stop by the armoury for a weapon. I know that all the science team have at least had weapons familiarity training, I want you armed." he finished with determination hopefully forestalling any arguments from the scientist.

He needn't have worried, Rodney barely acknowledged the instruction as he hurried off muttering under his breath about who knew what.

"Elizabeth, could you have someone track down Lieutenant Ford?" he asked.

"Of course," she replied, "what should I tell him you need him for?"

"I need a fourth member of the team, he seems capable."

Elizabeth was surprised and didn't bother trying to hide it, "I didn't realise you'd met him?"

"I haven't really, exchanged a few words before we came through the gate but I've read his file and we need a fourth man."

Any reply Elizabeth might have made was stymied as John left the gateroom at a jog, Sirius trailing along behind him.

Twenty minutes later found John, Sirius and Lieutenant Ford back in the gateroom, Sirius had taken a few minutes to move the shuttlecraft back to the hanger bay and the three of them were making small-talk with Elizabeth, Jack and Daniel as they waited for Rodney to arrive.

Elizabeth, Jack and Daniel had hung around so that they could see the others off on their mission. The three had been surprised when John walked back through the doors five minutes before with Sirius still in tow to see the change in the wizard. Gone were the flowing locks and the velvet frock coat, instead his hair was confined in a neat pony-tail and he was wearing a set of black BDU's that John had apparently rustled up from somewhere. On the upper arm, where other members of the expedition sported the flag of their home country, Sirius had an image of a bird in red and gold, a phoenix, wings spread and head stretched up high as it rose from it 's own ashes.

Sirius had wanted to object when John had thrust the bundle of black clothing at him but on second thoughts he realised that the clothes on his back were the only thing he had left from home and so he had meekly accepted the bundle and quickly changed. He had noted the flags on the arms of the other men and women all around him and wanting to put some small stamp of his own individuality onto the clothes he had held his hand cupped over his upper arm for a few moments, concentrating fiercely on the image he wanted to display. Taking away the hand he had been pleased to see the image of the phoenix emblazoned there exactly as he had envisioned it. John had noticed the amendment immediately of course and Sirius had merely stared at him defiantly but John had simply nodded, approving the change and they had set off through the city again as John continued his preparations.

Sirius hadn't been as pliant when John had tried to press a weapon upon him when they reached the armoury and John had backed down quickly enough when reminded of the events earlier that day when Sirius had been confronted by Colonel Sumner wielding a rocket launcher.

Finally, only ten minutes late, Rodney made his way into the gateroom laden down under a heavy rucksack with quite obviously no weapon in sight.

"Rodney, what have you got there, we're only going to retrieve our men, we shouldn't be gone more than a few hours." Shepherd's laughter was friendly and Rodney looked a little rueful.

"We don't know what to expect and really, have you read any of SG1's mission logs?"

"Hey!" Jack clearly objected to the perceived slight against his team though he had to admit, they had had more than their fair share of interesting missions over the years.

Shepherd acknowledged Rodney's point, he had indeed read all the SG team's mission logs but the ones from SG1 certainly made the most entertaining bedtime reading of them all. Changing the subject he handed over a holstered pistol and belt, "you forgot something."

Rodney took the offering unhappily, looking down at the weapon in his hands with distaste.

"I know you're checked out on it, I reviewed the armour master's logs." and Shepherd sounded so uncompromising that Rodney had no choice but to awkwardly strap the belt around his hips.

Sirius moved over to help him adjust the rucksack so that he could feed the belt around underneath it and as he settled it back on its straps Rodney noticed that it was suddenly significantly lighter. Surprised he looked up to meet the wizards sparkling grey eyes and received a sly wink from the eye hidden from the rest of the group. Rodney had never had a wide circle of friends but that certainly seemed to be changing, he'd set himself to find out what it was about Kavanagh that Lantia found so interesting and he'd definitely enjoyed the time he'd spent this morning with John, Jack, Daniel and Sirius. Somehow the Pegasus galaxy was beginning to feel more like home than Earth ever had.

With the team finally ready Shepherd waved up to Grodin in the control room and suddenly the Stargate sprang into life, the symbols around the edge lighting up as the co-ordinates locked on until finally the wormhole opened with a startling display that caused Sirius to flinch back unthinkingly at his first real exposure to the amazing feat of engineering that was the Stargate technology.

"What's it like?" Sirius asked, nodding to the event horizon.

Shepherd just smirked and gestured to Ford, "ask him."

Confused Sirius looked back and forward between the two men, there was obviously some kind of private joke here, that much was plain from the smirk on John's face and the sheepish expression on Ford's. As Shepherd stepped through the 'gate, Sirius cocked an eyebrow at the younger man with a look that just screamed 'Well?'

Ford was looking uncomfortable, the image of a Hogwarts first year caught in the act by a grim Professor McGonagall sprang into Sirius' head. He was about to say something, to let the kid off the hook when Rodney broke the moment. Stuck behind them on the ramp to the Stargate Rodney had apparently got tired of waiting and stepping up he shouldered his way roughly between them, "can you take this up on the other side" he threw over his shoulder as he too stepped through.

Realising that they were holding things up Sirius offered a quick wave to the three waiting to see them off and stepped through the gate, closely followed by Lieutenant Ford. Coming out the other side Sirius gave a brief, whole body shiver from the cold of the transition before the warm night air of the planet they had landed on enfolded him. It seemed a pleasant enough place, the 'gate was in a large, grassy clearing within what appeared to be a sizable, open woodland. John and Rodney were conferring a short way off and Sirius quickly joined them. They were discussing which way Sumner's team might have gone.

Summoning up a clear picture in his head of the man they were looking for, Sirius held out his hand, palm up and murmured, "Point me Sumner." A glowing arrow appeared, hovering about an inch above his hand. For a moment it spun aimlessly before settling down to point in a steady direction. Sirius felt like it should be north, but really, how did you tell on a different planet, circling a different sun in another galaxy!

Shepherd just stared at the glowing arrow before a massive grin broke over his features, "You have got to teach me this stuff" he demanded eagerly before striding off in the indicated direction.

They had been walking for almost fifteen minutes when Shepherd stopped them, throwing up a hand for silence, and hissing a "ssshh" at Rodney when the scientist tried to ask what was going on.

In the sudden silence they could all now hear the noises that had caught Shepherd's attention as the thin, high sounds of women wailing drifted around them in the night air. Moving more cautiously now the team carried on and soon the trees around them gave way to a small, rustic village. The closer they got, the more they could hear and the sounds worried Shepherd. The deeper voices of men had joined those of the women and it was clear that there was quite a commotion going on in the little village.

The four of them managed to creep up to the houses and peering out from cover they took in the sight before them. Chapman and Wright had their P90's out, Chapman was covering a crowd of villagers whilst Wright was concentrating on a small group of wailing women who surrounded a man kneeling on the ground with the limp body of a child in his arms. To Rodney's surprise Kavanagh was there, his back to them as he leaned over the child, it looked like he was trying to help, trying to keep pressure on a wound going by his posture. That gave the watchers hope, Kavanagh may not be part of the medical contingent but he should know enough to know if the child was alive or dead, and if the child still lived there was hope that no permanent damage had been done, if only they could only get this situation resolved and get the boy to Atlantis for medical attention.

Chapman and Wright looked tense, they kept shooting glances over at something by one of the huts, but whatever it might have been was blocked from the view of Shepherd's team by the bulk of the building that they were hiding behind.

Just as Shepherd was about to move, to try to get a better angle Chapman called out a question, "is he alright?"

The harsh reply came in Bates sarcastic tones, "does he look alright?"

That seemed to be the last straw for Chapman and he fired a short burst from his P90 into the air before turning his attention back to the crowd he was covering, "What have you done to him?" he demanded angrily before letting loose another burst of gunfire.

Shepherd made to move again but this time Sirius stopped him with a heavy hand on his shoulder. The wizard shushed him with a finger to his lips and sidling around the back of the ramshackle building he peeked out from the other side. From his new position Sirius had a much better view of what was going on, he still couldn't see Sumner but the other three military men where all in clear view. Chapman and Wright still held their earlier positions, Bates was crouched over a still form slumped against the side of a small hut. As Sirius watched Bates stood angrily, worried that the Sergeant might decide to take more direct action against the helpless villagers Sirius summoned the magic within him and picturing his three targets in his head he whispered the words, "Petrificus Totalis."

The three men dropped like stones and the villagers cried out in terror as one lot of invaders were apparently vanquished, only to be replaced by four more who, having so easily defeated the first three men now stepped out from their places of hiding. Only Kavanagh and the man opposite him ignored the goings on around them as they concentrated on the child laid on the ground between them. Rodney hurried over to see what he could do to help leaving Sirius, Shepherd and Ford to close in on Bates position to see what had held his attention.

Reaching Bates prone body they stopped in shock. Beyond Bates there lay another figure in the uniforrm of a US soldier, slumped against the wall of the hut was an elderly man, his face creased and lined with age, a few wisps of pure white hair on his head. His jacket and the shirt beneath were ripped open to display a livid, scarlet hand-print emblazoned on the pale skin of his chest.

Crouching beside the man Shepherd laid two fingers on the skin of the throat, "he's alive," he confirmed before snagging the chain around the man's neck with one finger-tip. Tugging gently on the chain Shepherd pulled the dog-tags free from the torn clothing that had hidden them. He stared at the inscription in disbelief for several seconds before displaying it to Sirius and Ford.

Col. SUMNER, M.

A/N : Well there it is, what do you think? Please review.


	12. Chapter 12

Author's Note : Thank you to Amyethious and Pyro-Neko-Isis for your reviews, they are much appreciated as always and make it worth taking the time to get the story written out and proof read to make sure it's worth your time to read it. So here it is, Chapter 12, consider it a slightly delayed Christmas gift from me to you, a review would be an appropriate return if you're wondering what to get me!

Chapter 12

Sirius, Ford and John looked down in shock at the elderly form of the Colonel, withered with premature age. It was Ford who broke the silence, "How could this happen?" he asked in confusion.

Before anyone had chance to answer they were distracted as Rodney called out for help and they remembered the injured boy. "Stay with him," Shepherd directed Ford with a wave at the Colonel before he and Sirius hurried to see what Rodney needed.

As they got to him they saw the boy that he and Kavanagh were working on. The child couldn't have been more than ten years old, he wore a black robe that had been ripped down from the neck to expose the rough homespun garments underneath. These too had been ripped to uncover the wound beneath. Kavanagh was pressing a bundle of blood-soaked cloth over the wound, the man who they had seen working with Kavanagh on the child was holding the boy's head in his lap, weeping as he stroked his fingers through the child's hair. Rodney was trying to get the boy away from him to check on his vitals but the man, presumably the child's father was having none of it.

Stepping in Sirius knelt beside the beleaguered scientist, "let me see" he murmured and with an anxious sigh Rodney sat back on his heels. Racking his brains Sirius tried to remember the little medical magic he had learned back in Hogwarts and later during auror training. Concentrating on the boy, especially the injured shoulder under Kavanagh's hands he muttered "valetudo statua."

As the words fell from his lips a golden glow enveloped the boy invoking an awed gasp as the villagers crowding around them collectively took a step backwards. The glow played over the prone form for a few moments then a thin sliver of parchment appeared in the air above the child. Slowly the sliver grew, looking to the watching expedition members like nothing so much as paper feeding out of an invisible printer. As the paper grew they could see that it was covered with writing in a flowing copperplate hand. Then the glow faded and the paper, released from its invisible hold floated down only to be snatched out of the air by Sirius so that he could eagerly scan the contents.

"A boy, 10 years old, slightly malnourished, not all that unexpected looking at the living conditions. Let's see, scrapes and bruises, about normal for a lively, active boy his age, a broken arm about four years ago, it was competently set, the break has healed well, a list of, I don't know, probably normal childhood diseases for this world. Altogether nothing particularly remarkably until now." Sirius paused in his perusal of the spell's output, "He's been shot," Sirius remarked as he read on, "upper left shoulder, bullet's still in there. He's lost a lot of blood and is going into shock but his heart is strong and he's in no immediate danger. If we can get him to Dr Beckett on Atlantis there's a good chance that he'll recover fully."

"Isn't there anything you can do here?" Shepherd asked looking around at the gathered crowd. He wasn't sure how much they understood of what was being said, did they even understand English? "I don't think they'll be too happy if we try to take the boy away."

Sirius stood, "if the situation was more desperate then I would try, but medical magic never was my strong suit and as the boy is strong enough to make the trip to competent medical help, that is his best chance."

"OK," Shepherd acknowledged Sirius's words and turned to survey the assembled villagers, trying to identify an authority figure. His gaze had just settled on a woman who stood slightly ahead of the rest. Standing tall and proud she had a definite air of authority, he had just opened his mouth to address her when the child's father spoke.

"You have people who can help Jinto?" he asked, his eyes still locked on the unconscious face of the boy.

"Jinto?" Shepherd asked, unfamiliar with the word.

"You can help my son?" the man repeated, looking up now and pinning John with blue eyes, shining with tears.

John paused only for a second, "yes, we have doctors who can help your son, help Jinto, but we have to take him to them."

"Then let us go" and hoisting his son in his arms the man started to stand, but the action dislodged Kavanagh's hands and a sluggish jolt of blood welled up from the wound causing Rodney to step in hurriedly.

"NO, put him down, we need to secure the wound before we can move him, Kavanagh, keep the pressure on," he hissed the redundant instruction, as soon as the boy had been laid back down Kavanagh had adjusted his position and resumed his task, his hands and forearms were covered, almost to the elbow, in blood and he had streaks of blood on his face where he had apparently tried to brush back wisps of hair that had torn free of his pony-tail but it was clear that he had one purpose in his life at the moment and that was to keep pressure on that wound.

Looking over his shoulder at one of the women clustered around him the man on the ground started issuing instructions. "Get clean cloth to bind Jinto's wound," to another "pack up clothes for me and the boy."

The women hurried off to obey his commands but the woman Shepherd had spotted earlier, the one he had identified as one of the leaders of this community stepped forward now in agitation, "Halling, No!"

This time the man, Halling stood more carefully, sliding out from beneath his son's head and passing the child off to Rodney so that he could confront the woman. John was surprised to find himself looking up at Halling once he was upright, his height had been hidden before as he hunched over his son and now he towered four or five inches over John. "Teyla, he'll die if he stays here! if these people can help him then we have to go with them!"

Looking down at the pale child lying in the mud, Teyla considered for several moments, "very well, but if you are going then I am going with you."

"No Teyla," Halling's refusal was kind but firm as he inclined his head to touch his forehead to that of the woman. "I thank you for the offer but you are needed here, with our people."

"But Halling, my responsibility is for the safety of all our people, I cannot let you and Jinto go off alone with these people, they are strangers to us, they wear the same clothing as those who did this to Jinto, we cannot trust them!"

Putting the woman away from him Halling gently reiterated his refusal, "No Teyla, Jinto needs the help that these men are offering, I must go with him but I won't put anyone else in danger. You have to see to the safety of the village."

Seeing that the argument could go on for a long time Shepherd stepped in, "I promise no harm will come to you Halling, our Doctor's will do their best to help your son and you will be free to come and go as you please but that wound is serious and we need to get going." Looking to Rodney he saw that the scientist was just finishing binding Jinto's shoulder. Kavanagh, now that he was no longer needed to keep pressure on the wound was looking at his blood covered hands as if he'd never seen them before, it seemed the boy wasn't the only one going into shock.

Indicating the four unconscious bodies strewn around them Shepherd asked, "have you anywhere we can secure these men until we can send transport to get them back to the stargate?"

Calmly Teyla looked at the fallen men, "Yes, we can secure them but do not take too long, I may not be able to vouch for their safety once my people recover from the shock of what has gone on here today."

"That may not be necessary John," Sirius spoke up, he didn't like the idea of leaving these men behind and the Colonel needed to be taken back to the city with at least as much urgency as the child, maybe more. "Let me try something?" he requested.

Shepherd wasn't sure what Sirius could come up with in the current circumstances, but he had seen enough to know that there was a lot he didn't know about his new friend and about magic in general. "Sure, go ahead" and he settled back with his arms crossed over the P90 slung on its strap about his neck to see what would happen.

Stepping back Sirius surveyed the four unconscious men that they needed to convey back to the Stargate. Chapman and Wright were lying quite close together so he started with them, shifting their bodies around so that they lay side by side, flat on their backs with their arms by their sides. Satisfied with the positions of the first two men he walked over to where Bates lay sprawled beside his Colonel, holding one hand out over the Sergeants stomach he muttered a few words under his breath and Bates began to move as though lifted into the air by a string through his navel.

It was the strangest thing to watch as Bates rose into the air like a puppet with tangled strings, his arms and legs flopping however gravity pulled them as the torso rose. Once Bates' abdomen had reached around waist height it stopped moving and now the arms and legs rearranged themselves until the man's position mirrored his fellow soldiers. Now Sirius slowly walked over to the other two he had arranged, his hand still held over Bates' stomach and the unconscious soldier drifted through the air beneath his hand.

Once he had Bates settled beside the other two Sirius went back to the Colonel. He spent some time considering Sumner's prone form, slumped against the side of one of the rough huts the villagers lived in. When he was ready he held both hands out over the Colonel's torso and again muttered a few words, but this time there was a sense of care being taken as the body rose into the air. The arms and legs weren't allowed to flop around however gravity took them. No, this time as the body rose the limbs gently aligned themselves into the same laid out pose of the others.

Finally Sirius had all four men lined up neatly on the ground, now he positioned himself at their heads and holding out both arms to focus his thoughts he commanded, "Mobilicorpus multa." As he spoke the words the four men rose smoothly into the air as one and lay there, flat and level at waist height.

Shepherd just stared for a few moments before turning back to the small tableau on the ground behind him. "Is the boy stabilised?" he asked Rodney and the scientist wearily wiped a hand across his forehead leaving behind a smear of mingled mud and blood.

"I'm no doctor, but he's as stable as I can make him," he looked across to Kavanagh as he spoke and the other man nodded weary agreement.

"Right, Halling, I assume you will be carrying Jinto?"

The big man simply nodded and picked his son up in gentle arms. A man from the crowd stepped forward and took up the pack that had been brought out earlier at Halling's request. Silently the new man stood at Halling's shoulder, the message clear, that he would be accompanying them.

Shepherd raised no demur, he didn't know if the man was just offering to carry the pack to the gate or if he planned to accompany them to Atlantis. Whichever it was he was too happy to be getting out of what could have been a bad situation as easily as they were to raise any objections. "Then everyone gather your gear, we're moving out."

Halling and the man carrying his pack moved off first, leading the way back to the Stargate, Sirius followed after with his four charges carefully in hand. Stepping into the space were Jinto had lain Shepherd extended a hand to each of the kneeling scientists and leaning back pulled them to their feet where they swayed slightly in exhaustion. Stepping behind Rodney he hefted the heavy pack that had obviously been discarded so as not to hamper the attempt to save the boy. As he lifted it he realised that despite its size the pack was actually fairly light and he remembered Sirius helping Rodney to adjust the pack before they set out. "Oh I have to learn this stuff" he muttered to himself before calling Ford over and tossing the pack to him. "Take that, and keep an eye on Rodney!" he commanded.

Next he took the pack that Kavanagh had retrieved and was currently trying to put on his own back. Slinging the pack over one shoulder Shepherd settled it alongside his own and turning Kavanagh gently they set off to follow the others back to the Stargate.

It was a long, slow walk back to the gate, with a contingent of villagers, led by the woman, Teyla, following them. The scientists especially seemed to struggle, they were both used to a fairly sedentary existence and so as well as coping with the emotionally draining events of the last few hours they were also physically exhausted. Rodney was in a slightly better state, it was clear however, that Sumner had made no allowance for the lower physical fitness of the scientist when he dragged Kavanagh off on whatever mission it was that he hoped to accomplish.

Finally they reached the gate and now Shepherd realised they had another problem. There was no way that the gate was wide enough to allow all four floating bodies through at once with Sirius alongside them and Shepherd highly doubted that whatever force was holding them suspended would stretch between planets it they didn't all travel through together. Whilst he personally had no issue with watching them all fall to the deck he supposed that Elizabeth probably wouldn't approve.

"Ford, dial Atlantis, then take the others through, radio me when you have airmen in place to receive Colonel Sumner and his team as they come through."

Ford snapped out a sharp acknowledgement and stepped up to the device Shepherd recognised from the briefings he'd received before leaving Earth as the controller for the gate, the DHD.

As the connection formed and the wormhole whooshed into existence the man who had carried Halling's pack dropped it in front of the gate and moved back to stand behind Teyla with the other members of their escort.

Shepherd nodded to himself, apparently it would only be Halling and Jinto accompanying them back to Atlantis. He kept a watchful eye on their surroundings, especially the small escort that had followed them from the village as Ford efficiently mustered the two scientists and Halling with his fragile burden through the gate.

Moments later Elizabeth's voice crackled through the radio at his shoulder, "picking up strays already Major?"

"Well, given that Sumner or one of his men shot the boy it seemed only right to offer Dr Beckett's services!" he replied, his calm mask slipping a little so that the raw edge of his anger began to show through.

"Of course," the slight laughing hint to Elizabeth's voice had disappeared, "Dr Beckett has the child in hand, his father is with him. I understand that you have some other patients to send through for the good Doctor so I'll hand you over to Lieutenant Ford."

"Major, I have two airmen and a gurney standing by, please send the first of the wounded through sir."

"Give us a moment Lieutenant," Shepherd requested before turning to Sirius. "Sirius, how do you want to do this, can you control the bodies independently or do you need to drop them and we'll manhandle them through?" Now that his attention wasn't distracted by the tired and shocked scientists and by the boy and his father Shepherd realised that Sirius was beginning to show signs of the strain of levitating the four unconscious bodies over several miles of rough terrain. A glimmer of sweat was starting to show across his brow although he didn't appear to be in any significant distress yet.

"If I manoeuvre them all to the gate can you push them through in turn?" he asked and at Shepherd's quick nod he suited deed to the word and set his charges in motion one last time until they were floating gently with their heads mere inches from the shimmering blue event horizon of the wormhole.

Sumner's need was clearly the more urgent and so positioning himself Shepherd pushed gently on the soles of the man's boots, unsure what exactly to expect. As he pushed Colonel Sumner floated easily forward, head and shoulders slipping through the gate until with one last push Shepherd watched the soles of the Colonel's boots disappear into the blue. Moments later Ford's voice came crackling through the radio once more, "We have the Colonel sir, send the next one through."

In very short order the rest of Sumner's team were through the gate and back in Atlantis. Unhooking the radio from his uniform Shepherd walked over to the watching audience. Stopping in front of Teyla he offered her the radio, quickly he explained to her how to use it to contact the city if they wanted to speak to Halling. For the product of such a primitive culture he was impressed at how easily the woman understood what he was telling her.

Sirius had waited by the gate as he spoke his parting words to Teyla, now seeing that Shepherd was heading towards him he turned and stepped through. The sensation as he travelled through the wormhole was strange, one he didn't really have words to describe. He had no true feeling of the actual journey between the two gates, but on arrival he was left with a feeling, like a half forgotten memory of intense cold that he was beginning to associate with gate travel.

"Elizabeth," Shepherd greeted the administrator as he set foot back on Atlantis once more, seeing Jack and Daniel he nodded a brief greeting to the two men as well. They stood with Elizabeth as if none of the three had moved whilst they were gone. He thought that perhaps that was true but then he waved away the fanciful feeling, they had been gone several hours and he was sure that the three had much more interesting ways to spend their time than standing around waiting for him.

Looking around he realised that everyone else had cleared the area leaving only himself and Sirius facing the welcoming committee.

"Shall we adjourn to my office?" Elizabeth asked, already walking up the stairs towards an open door off to the left of the control centre.

The room was smaller than Sirius' office but just as functional and the view was as spectacular as he was coming to expect from this city. There was no relaxed seating area in this office but the conference table was larger and the five of them seated themselves around it comfortably. "I've asked Rodney and Kavanagh to join us once Dr Beckett releases them but for now can you tell me what you know of what happened on that planet?" Elizabeth got straight down to business and Shepherd immediately started to relate the events as he had seen them unfold.

Night was just beginning to fall as he finished relating his final conversation with Teyla when Rodney and Kavanagh walked into the room accompanied by Halling. The mud and blood was gone and the two scientists looked a lot less traumatised than they had when he had last seen them. Halling was looking about in wonder, obviously over-awed by the city in which he found himself.

Seeing the tall man walking in behind the scientists Shepherd pushed back his chair and stood, "Halling, how's Jinto?" he asked.

"He's sleeping," Halling replied "your Dr Beckett has removed the bullet from his wound and stopped the bleeding, he assures me that there is no reason why Jinto shouldn't make a full recovery."

"That's excellent news, please take a seat," Shepherd gestured towards one of the empty chairs around the table, "that is, unless you need to get back to your son?"

"Thank you, Dr Beckett informs me that Jinto will sleep for several hours and..." here Halling faltered turning towards Kavanagh.

"I thought that as the only representative of his village in the city Halling's viewpoint on what happened today would be useful" Kavanagh offered.

As the leader of the expedition Elizabeth decided that now was the time to reassert her authority, "Thank you Dr Kavanagh that was good thinking, please all of you, sit down."

As the three newcomers found seats at the table Elizabeth and Shepherd also resumed their seats, "Major Shepherd has been telling us what happened after he and his team reached your world, I'd very much like it if you Halling and Dr Kavanagh here could fill in the blanks and let us know what happened between the time when Colonel Sumner's team left Atlantis and when Major Shepherd and his team reached your village."

Kavanagh just nodded and stared at his interlaced fingers for a few moments mustering his thoughts before taking up the story. "Colonel Sumner forced me through the gate after his team, I tried to explain that I have no field experience but he wasn't interested. We arrived on the planet in the early morning, shortly after sunrise, as soon as we stepped through the gate he instructed his men to fan out and secure the area. One of the men, Chapman I think, found a path so we began to follow it. We'd been walking for some time and could hear the sounds of the village up ahead although we didn't know about the village then."

Kavanagh paused, still examining his hands as he held them, fingers tightly interwoven on the table before him, finally he seemed to make a decision and continued on with his story, "The closer we got the more jumpy Colonel Sumner became, Bates remained calm but the other two picked up on what the Colonel was feeling and they became more and more nervous too. We were almost to the village, when two boys burst out of the trees, they were playing some kind of a game of tag and didn't even see us. One of them, Jinto was dressed up as a monster, he had on a long black robe and a monster mask with long white hair and he was chasing the other boy. The other boy shrieked and Chapman whipped his hand-gun from the holster and shot Jinto. Bates and I rushed over to the boy to try to help him... there was so much blood!"

Kavanagh finally looked up to meet Halling's eyes as the tall villager watched him from across the table. "I'm so sorry Jinto was hurt, if I'd known what was going to happen, it all happened so fast..." he trailed off once more, obviously blaming himself for the injury to the child.

"Were you armed?" Jack asked harshly, apparently out of nowhere.

Kavanagh just looked confused and shook his head, "no, they didn't give me a gun."

"No, and do you have advanced training in hand-to-hand combat?" Jack asked, his aggressive tone confusing the scientist even more.

"No, just the bare minimum of self-defence that we were required to have before signing up for this mission." Replied Kavanagh.

"Then you couldn't have done anything to stop an armed, highly trained marine," Jack's tone softened as he carried on, "you did what you could to staunch the bleeding and to keep the boy alive until help arrived," he stopped now, waiting until Kavanagh looked up to meet his eyes, "you did good kid."

They remained like that, eyes locked for several moments as Kavanagh searched Jack's face for any sign of condescension or pity. Eventually he dropped his gaze, Kavanagh still looked doubtful, unsure whether or not to believe the General but he continued with his recitation. "The villagers must have heard the shot, they came running. I had pressure on the wound when Halling reached us, he pulled Bates away and picked the child up and carried him to the village. I just tried to keep pace with him and to keep pressing down on the bullet hole in Jinto's shoulder. There was a lot of shouting going on but I wasn't really paying that much attention to it, I was focussed on the child."

"When we reached the village square something happened, I don't know what but the Colonel screamed and fell to his knees, that set Chapman and Wright off and they fired a burst of gunfire into the air. We stopped and Halling lay Jinto on the ground, someone brought some rags so that I could use those instead of my bare hands. I don't really know a lot more than that, Bates was trying to help the Colonel and the other two were threatening the villagers, asking what they had done to the Colonel, I'm guessing that's when you arrived." He finished with a glance that took in both Shepherd and Sirius and both men nodded to confirm his guess.

Reaching across the table Halling laid one large hand over Kavanagh's two hands in a gesture of gratitude, then drawing back he started to relay his view of events. "We arrived to find two men knelt over Jinto's body on the ground and three more men looking on, I pulled one of the men away and picked up my son to bring him back to our home but when the man screamed and the other men started shooting I had to stop and place him on the ground. I didn't see much more of what happened than Dr Kavanagh, I was concentrating on my son but I did see your Colonel Sumner in the Infirmary before I left. The sudden aging, the white hair and the red hand-print on the chest are all signs of a Wraith attack but there were no Wraith, I don't know how he could have been attacked in the middle of the village without anyone seeing anything, it doesn't make any sense." Halling looked around the table to see what reaction his words had evoked.

It was Daniel who asked the question on everyone's minds, "You mentioned that it looked like a Wraith attack, what is a Wraith?"

Halling's eyes flew to Daniels face in surprise, seeing only earnest enquiry he stared into each of the faces around the table in turn. Apparently none of these people knew about the Wraith. "The Wraith are creatures who feed on our life essence. They travel the galaxy culling the human population for food and then, when the food supplies run low they hibernate away for generations. Once the food stocks are sufficiently replenished they awake and roam the stars again." He stopped and looked around his audience, "you've truly never encountered the Wraith?"

"No, never" Shepherd replied.

"Then you should go back to your own world, as soon as possible!" Halling advised fervently.

"Unfortunately that's not an option."

Halling nodded in understanding before continuing "they are currently in hibernation and we estimate that we should have another forty or fifty years before they awake once more. I was only young when they last raided Athos but I've heard the stories, they place their hand on a man's chest and pull the life force from him leaving only a empty, dry husk behind marked with the print of a hand on the chest where they fed."

It took those assembled around the table a minute to absorb the horror of a race that survived on the life-force of others. Finally Elizabeth spoke, "that certainly sounds like the same symptoms that Colonel Sumner is displaying but if all of these Wraith are hibernating how could they have attacked him, and without anyone seeing anything."

"They do not all sleep, some remain awake as caretakers, they monitor the human population and awake the sleepers when there is sufficient food available to sustain their race" Halling explained, "but even so, there is no way that there could have been a Wraith in the village without our knowing of it. Some of our people can sense their presence yet no-one felt anything today."

"So, not Wraith, but something Wraith-like?" Jack half suggested half questioned.

"I am not aware of any other creature that feeds in the same way that the Wraith do." Halling replied.

"What if it was a Wraith?" Daniel asked in a thoughtful tone.

"Didn't we just establish that it wasn't a Wraith." Jack knew well how Daniel's mind worked, if Daniel had an idea then he was perfectly willing to ask those questions that would help his partner think his way through the problem, even if it did have those who did not know them so well looking at him like he'd kicked a particularly cute puppy!

"Hear me out" Daniel requested, "You and I weren't originally scheduled to join this mission, I wanted to come but my commanding officer," at this he shot a wry glance at Jack who merely dipped his head briefly in acknowledgement, " wouldn't release me. Sirius you told us that you fell through the veil in 1996 and stepped out onto this world in 2004?" Sirius nodded confirmation, not wanting to de-rail Daniel's train of thought. "In 2001 I died," he paused at the shocked gasps from Sirius and Halling but Jack cut them off.

"Don't make such a big deal of it, he does it all the time."

Daniel had to agree but gave Jack's ankle a quick kick under the table anyway, "it's true, but that time I ascended. I spent over a year with the Ancients as an ascended being and I think that during that time I saw you Sirius," this time the gasps came from everyone around the table. "There are still big gaps in my memory of that time but you looked familiar to me the first time I saw you, I think I may have been involved in a very small way in the work that was being done to repair the damage that had been done to you. And I think... I think that knowing your story, the regrets that you have for things left undone may have been what gave me the push to finally convince Jack to leave the military and come to Atlantis."

"So you think that the Ancients rescuing Sirius and sending him here may have... what, spawned an alternate Universe, one where you and Jack came to Atlantis instead of staying on Earth?" Rodney seemed to be the only one following Daniel's line of thought, "an interesting idea but what does that have to do with what's happened to the Colonel?"

Daniel was eager now, his mind racing ahead of his mouth as he tried to get his thoughts across, "well, what if Jack and I coming to Atlantis wasn't the only change caused by Sirius' presence. We know that there are is definitely one point where the timeline has been altered artificially since we arrived here, the story that the other Elizabeth told Sirius. What if Jack and I coming to Atlantis was another split caused by the Ancients intervention, what if there was another major split that we don't know about. Three artifical splits in the timeline so close together couldn't that, I don't know," his voice deepened as he raised his arms theatrically above his head and he intoned "weaken the walls between dimensions?"

All eyes turned to Sirius but it was Rodney who asked, "what did you do when you first arrived on Atlantis?"

Sirius leaned back slightly in his chair, raising his hands defensively before him, "I told you what happened, I thought I was alone, then I spoke Lantia's name and she woke up, she detected the older Elizabeth in distress and led me to her, I brought her back to the infirmary and tried to help her, she told us her story and then Lantia got us out of there and off to the mainland to wait for you to arrive."

"Lantia!" Rodney called out the city computers name, "you got Sirius out of the city whilst it was still underwater, how did you do that?"

Lantia had been listening in on the discussion, just as she listened in on as much as she could of what was going on around the city. "I showed him the shuttlecraft and I manipulated the shield so that he could fly it out of the city, up through the ocean and to the mainland." She explained calmly.

"And how much power did all that manipulation take?" Rodney pressed her.

"Quite a lot, but I calculated it very carefully, I knew that there would be sufficient energy to sustain the city safely on the sea-bed until you arrived, you were in no danger." She assured the eager scientist.

"Yes, you knew that, but we didn't, if Sirius had never arrived in Atlantis, how long would the zpm have lasted until it gave way and the city was raised to the surface?" Everyone could tell that Rodney was getting close to an answer now and they waited in eager anticipation as he took Daniel's initial idea and ran with it.

"It's impossible to say, it would depend on what your people did on arrival, how much of the city they explored and how quickly." Lantia replied sounding a little flustered by her inability to give an answer.

"Granted, but make a guess, five more minutes, a few hours, several days, give me a ball-park estimate here, how long?"

"At least a day, maybe two depending on how much power you used."

"Thank you." Having got his answer Rodney returned his attention to those seated around the table, "so we're in a city, trapped beneath the ocean for a day, maybe two, the power is failing and we have no idea that the city will rise to the surface when the power goes. What do we do?"

"We go looking for somewhere safe to evacuate to!" Jack declared.

"But how do we power the gate, if the zpm is that close to drained surely we can't use the stargate?" Elizabeth asked in confusion.

Shepherd snapped his fingers and pointed across the table to Rodney, "the naquadah generators!"

"Absolutely, they wouldn't be enough to make a difference to the shields but they'd be more than enough to power the gate, but where would we go?"

"What does it matter where, we went somewhere and met these Wraith and they fed on Sumner." Shepherd sat back in satisfaction, they had a workable theory although they would probably never be able to prove it.

"That's all very well but if Sumner was attacked in an alternate universe then why is our Sumner showing the symptoms?" Elizabeth wasn't satisfied with the solution, it still left too many unanswered questions.

"It's what Daniel said, too much interference in the timeline causing a weakness in the barriers between the universes. Events from the other timelines are bleeding through affecting the people in this universe, it could even explain how strangely Colonel Sumner has been acting since we arrived, the effects of almost simultaneous deaths in two different timelines seeping though, could be enough to drive anyone crazy." Rodney sat back too, stunned that he was not only considering but actually supporting such a theory.

Sirius didn't really understand all this talk of alternate universes and splitting the timeline, but there was one question that he felt still needed to be answered, "what does this mean for Sumner, presumably if Sumner had been attacked by a Wraith then the effects would be permanent," he waited a moment and Halling nodded confirmation, "so what happens now, can he recover from an inter-dimensional Wraith attack? And what about the rest of us, are other members of the team going to be struck down randomly by events in another universe?"

As Sirius finished speaking Elizabeth's radio squawked into life and Carson's voice broke in upon the discussion, "Dr Weir, could you come to the infirmary urgently."

"I'll be right there," Elizabeth rose from the table, "gentlemen." She nodded as the men at the table also rose and as she headed for the door she wasn't entirely surprised to find them following her. It was quite clear that objecting would have no effect and so she saved her breath and simply hurried to the infirmary to see what had Carson so agitated.

As they approached the infirmary doors they could hear the commotion going on inside, then a voice they hadn't expected to hear again rang out and as one the group quickened their pace. "What's happening, I demand that you release me at once!"

Stepping through the doors they saw two medical corpsmen struggling to hold an angry figure to one of the diagnostic beds. There, still looking slightly older than his 46 years was Colonel Sumner. Even as they watched more colour bleed into his hair and the lines on his face smoothed out as the years leeched away.

"I guess we have our answer!"

A/N : well there it is, I hope you enjoyed, please review.


	13. Chapter 13

Author's Note: Well here it is, at long last, chapter 13, thank you to everyone who reviewed Chapter 12 and everyone who has reviewed so far.

Chapter 13

"That's enough Colonel!"

Silence fell over the scene in the infirmary as everyone froze at the words suddenly barked out as Jack stepped up to the foot of the diagnostic bed on which Colonel Sumner grappled with the two corpsmen.

Into the silence Jack was able to continue in a more normal tone of voice. "These men have a job to do, you need to settle down and let them do it."

Sumner subsided onto the raised head of the bed, "what am I doing here?" he asked Jack, "I'm perfectly fine, so why am I here?"

Jack just looked at him thoughtfully for a few moments before asking the room at large, "does anyone here have a mirror?"

All eyes turned to Elizabeth and a brief flash of annoyance crossed her face but she just shrugged showing empty hands.

Jack looked around the room, "anyone?" he asked again.

Sirius looked around the room, on the floor he spotted a small pile of broken glass swept into a corner, apparently there had been some breakages in the moving in process. Walking over he leaned down and picked up the largest piece, careful to avoid slicing his fingers on the sharp edges. Cupping the shard in his hand he pictured a simple hand mirror in his mind. Once he had the image he pushed it gently at the glass which simply flowed into its new shape, a silvered backing flowing underneath the new formed circle to form a perfect mirror. When it was complete Sirius simply offered it to Jack who gestured towards the, still predominantly grey-haired, man on the bed and Sirius handed the mirror over.

Sumner took the offering and with some trepidation held it up to view his face. At first he wasn't sure what he was supposed to be seeing, there were no gaping wounds, no disfiguring scars, he looked a little older than he remembered but it wasn't as if he spent hours every day preening in front of the mirror. However as he looked he realised that the lines around his eyes were smoothing out and colour was leaching slowly back into his hair.

Eventually the image in the little mirror stabilised and he was looking at the same face he usually saw. "What the hell is going on here?" he asked angrily.

As the Colonel glared around him no-one quite seemed to know what to say.

"Well!" he demanded after several moments silence

It was Elizabeth who finally spoke up although not in direct answer to Colonel Sumner's question, "Lantia, earlier you showed us a recording of the Colonel leaving Atlantis, do you have recordings of what happened before that, and of the Colonel's return?" after all, pictures paint a thousand words, especially with a man of action like Sumner.

There was a slight pause before Lantia replied. If anyone had been watching Sirius they would have seen him unconsciously give a slight nod of his head as he answered the question the city had posed to him in the privacy of his own mind. Once she had received his consent Lantia replied, "Yes Elizabeth, I do."

"Thank you Lantia, can you please show the Colonel his actions from earlier today," she asked politely.

"I can use the diagnostic bed to display the images, if Colonel Sumner could lay back or move away please." Lantia replied and the Colonel who had been sat up with his legs hanging over the edge of the narrow gurney to examine himself in the small mirror Sirius had conjured, lifted his legs up and leant back against the raised head of the bed. The draft against his back had alerted him to the fact that choosing to stand at this moment would not be commensurate with his dignity, not in the open backed hospital gown that he had somehow been changed into before he awoke.

Once he was settled Lantia started the images rolling. First she showed the confrontation in the hallway as the Colonel almost fired a Rocket Launcher within the close confines of the city. After showing the unconscious Colonel being carried away by his men the images switched to show the scene that Elizabeth and the others had viewed in the shuttlecraft on the trip back from the mainland. Finally the images from the gate room were displayed, showing the Colonel gliding through the event horizon of the worm hole into the waiting arms of several enlisted men who gently carried his elderly body to the waiting medics and laid him gently on a gurney. As the viewers watched the other three members of his away team were each received in the same way, each unconscious but none of them stricken with advanced age in the same way that the Colonel was.

The images from the infirmary clearly showed the inflamed red hand-print on Sumner's chest as the medical team worked feverishly to support his failing body before they could even begin to try to understand what had happened to cause the sudden ageing. Then, as they watched the replay of events, slowly the hand print began to fade, as it disappeared the signs of advanced age also began to retreat until the Colonel regained consciousness and immediately tried to stand initiating the brief fight with the medical corpsmen that the others had witnessed on entering the infirmary a short while before. At that point Lantia shut off the replay and silence descended upon the room.

The colour had drained from Sumner's face as he watched the events unfold and he realised that his career was over. When the last of the pictures faded from the air he turned to Jack with empty eyes. Summoning the tattered scraps of his pride to him he pulled himself to sit upright and addressed the older man with quiet dignity. "General, if you'll have someone find my clothes these men can escort me to the brig, Bates and the others were purely following my orders, I would like to request leniency for them. I'm relinquishing command of the Atlantis Military contingent to you as the ranking officer on board."

"Relinquish Schminquish, did no-one get the memo, I'm retired!" Jack exclaimed forcefully. "Before you go throwing yourself upon your sword, we have a theory as to what caused your actions, Danny, would you care to explain?" and he took half a pace backwards allowing Daniel to take the floor and explain the conversation that had taken place in Elizabeth's office earlier.

"So you see, we believe that you were not in full control of your faculties when these events took place." Daniel wrapped up his explanation of what Jack was starting to think of as the 'Multiple Mangled Timelines' theory.

The Colonel thought for a few moments after Daniel had finished speaking. It might be grasping at straws somewhat, but if that was what it took to save his career then he could live with that. There was just one thing still bothering him though. "If this is the result of events in alternate timelines, then how do we know it won't happen again?" he asked.

Daniel was trying to find a diplomatic way to answer the question when Rodney stepped in with an uncomfortably forth-right reply, "Well, since the theory postulates that it was your simultaneous deaths in each of the affected timelines that caused the problem you should be the safest person on Atlantis going forward."

"Rodney!" John Shepherd scolded the scientist in exasperated tones.

"No, it's alright," Sumner interjected, "so we think I'm in the clear, what about everyone else? Could other members of the expedition be affected in the same way?"

"Well, obviously we're working purely on conjecture here, but the effects seem to be fading as we move away from the initial events. We should all be alert to the possibility of a repeat but I'm hoping that as time passes with no further time-space disruptions this timeline will stablise and we won't see any further bleed-through." Rodney finished his explanation, complete with his characteristic rapid hand gestures as if words were not enough to convey the thoughts firing through his super genius brain.

Colonel Sumner relaxed slightly, if the others were happy to accept the story they had concocted then far be it from him to argue the point. "Very well then, but, what happened to Bates and the rest of my team, they didn't seem to have been affected by these wraith?"

In the excitement Jack and the others had forgotten about the rest of Colonel Sumner's impromptu gate team. At the reminder they looked to Carson for an answer. The Doctor moved over to a curtained off area of the room, pulling back the curtain he revealed the three men, each lying on a diagnostic bed identical to the one occupied by the Colonel. "They were unconscious when they were first brought in here, they now seem to be conscious and there are no visible signs of injury but they're apparently completely paralysed."

"Shit!" the sudden obscenity from Sirius surprised everyone in the room as the wizard strode quickly over to the three stricken men that he had completely forgotten in the excitement of Sumner's recovery. Concentrating carefully he reached out with his mind to each of the three men, seeking the curse that he had placed upon them. As he felt the iron-hard tendrils of the curse encasing their bodies he gave a mental tug, lifting the curse and freeing each from their invisible captivity.

As each man was freed they took in a massive breath, filling lungs that had felt constricted by the sudden paralysis that had struck them down. As soon as they realised that they could move once again they scrambled off the diagnostic beds, backing up against the walls of the infirmary and staring around them with wild eyes.

It was Bates who found his voice first, "what the hell just happened?"

Remembering that he had no official standing in the expedition Jack looked to Elizabeth for approval before approaching the three men. At her sharp nod he stepped forward, addressing himself to Bates he asked, "what do you remember of the events of the last few hours?"

Bates looked a little perplexed at the question but drawing himself to attention began to relay the events of the day.

Sumner winced a little at hearing the description of his behaviour that morning relayed yet again. But it was when the soldier reached the events on the alien planet that his attention was really caught as this was all new to him.

"We were all on edge, when the boys burst out of the trees they took us by surprise, Chapman shot the boy in the mask before we realised what was happening." Bates relayed the events as dispassionately as he could, he saw his Colonel propped up on the diagnostic bed on the other side of the room. Even at this distance it was obvious that the manic edge that the man had been displaying for most of the day was gone and Bates was pleased about that, but it did raise the concern over what would happen to himself and the other men for following Sumner.

He completed his recital of events, one moment he had been leaning over his stricken Colonel trying to understand what had happened, the next he was waking up in the infirmary, completely paralysed, able to see and hear everything that went on around him, but unable to do anything else.

Here Sirius took up the story, "We came through the gate and followed Colonel Sumner's team to the village. When we arrived the Colonel was already down, Bates here was with him and the other two were threatening the rest of the villagers. I used a paralysis spell to disable the three men still standing and levitated all four back to the gate." Turning to the three men still standing against the infirmary wall, each now looking less tense, "please accept my apologies, I should have released the spell when we were back in the city."

Bates drew himself up into and even more upright stance than before, "apology accepted Sir!" he snapped out then asked quietly "Sir, what happens now?"

Sirius had no idea how to answer the tentative question and with a slight shrug he stepped aside, turning to Jack for a response as he did so.

Jack thought for a moment, "Bates, return to your quarters, you're on medical leave for the rest of the day, tomorrow you will return to your duties." He stopped then, accepting the soldier's nod of acceptance and waiting as the man marched out of the infirmary, eyes firmly forward as he left.

Now Jack turned to face the remaining two men, Chapman and Wright stood to attention beside their beds, they were each still in uniform as Bates had been. Apparently the medical staff had either been unable to change their clothes, or had been too busy with the Colonel to get to these men yet. Jack considered the two men carefully, Bates had been following his superior officers orders and had acquitted himself well in a difficult situation when the child had been shot and then the Colonel had been struck down by unknown forces. These two however had panicked, they had lost control and caused serious injury to an innocent child as well as threatening an entire village. The problem was that with no possibility of resupply in the near future every resource was vital. That included personnel, he did not want to have to lock these two up, that would just increase the impact to the military contingent as they not only lost Chapman and Wright but also the man-power used to guard them.

Then suddenly inspiration struck, "Lantia, you must have a lot of work to do maintaining a city that has been abandoned for ten thousand years?" he asked the city.

"Yes Jack," came the reply "there is much to be done and power reserves are dangerously low."

He hummed thoughtfully, "would a couple of extra pairs of hands come in handy?" he asked, a slight smile lifting the corners of his mouth.

"Yes Jack," the city responded eagerly, she was already recalculating the work schedule. Even untrained the two men would provide a valuable extra resource, freeing up her drones to work on more complex tasks.

"Very well" Jack gave a decided nod, "go to your quarters and rest up for the rest of today. As of 09:00 tomorrow morning you two are under Lantia's direct command, make the most of this opportunity. You have until we make contact with Earth to redeem yourselves. Understood?"

The two men snapped out sharp salutes with a barked "Sir!" before filing out of the room.

Sirius' gaze was doubtful as he watched them leave, "Are you sure about this?" he asked.

Jack looked towards the door through which the two men had left with a small frown, "I don't know, but we have nowhere secure to hold them and we don't have the men to guard them 24/7 so I'm not sure what else we can do."

Sirius nodded, he didn't like it but he did understand Jack's dilemma. Still he wasn't going to leave anything to chance. "Lantia," he called out in his head, "keep a careful eye on those two, any trouble call me straight away!"

"What about me?" the question came from an unusually subdued Colonel Sumner.

"That's up to the good Doctor here," Jack replied and Dr Beckett quickly stepped up, glad to have control of his infirmary returned to him.

The Colonel sat with bad grace as he submitted to the examination. Disregarding the advanced medical technology of Atlantis Dr Beckett used nothing more than a pen-light and his wrist watch as he quickly and efficiently checked his patient's vitals. "There's nothing wrong with you now, but given the state in which you were brought in to the infirmary I'd like to keep you here for observation." he concluded.

"Is that an order Doctor?" Sumner asked sharply.

"No, I can't keep you here, but I'd strongly recommend..." The Doctor got no further with his recommendation, Sumner was already swinging his legs around, preparing to stand and he had no choice but to move back, out of the way, unless he wanted to physically grapple with the man.

"I assume you have my clothes around here somewhere?"

The question hung in the air for a moment until the Doctor gave a disgruntled nod and called out to a passing nurse "Get the Colonel his clothes please."

Looking around Carson saw that his infirmary was still unusually full of people, "was there anything else?" he asked the room at large.

Halling spoke up first, "Can I see my son yet?" he asked hopefully and Carson swiftly dispatched him off to the private room in the back of the infirmary where Jinto was recovering from surgery. Kavanagh chose to go along with the tall Athosian to check on the child too.

Elizabeth left next after thanking the other men for their help.

Finally there were only the five of them left with Carson, Jack, Daniel, John, Rodney and Sirius.

"Gentlemen?" Carson sounded harried, most of his patients may have been cleared out but there was still a lot to do to get the infirmary fully set up.

"Actually Carson we were wondering if you had a moment?" Jack asked.

"What is it, as you can see I'm very busy!" Carson gestured to the bustle around them as the medical team got on with the business of unpacking and settling in.

"Come on Carson," Rodney stepped forward slinging an arm around the Doctor's shoulders. "you know the nurses will be perfectly capable of getting everything sorted without your help," he paused for moment, "in fact it'll probably go faster if you get out of the way and leave them to it!"

At first Carson seemed inclined to bristle at the implication, but looking around at his well trained staff he simply shrugged, conceding Rodney's point.

"Very well, what did you need?"

"I don't suppose you have an office maybe, somewhere we can talk in private?" Jack resumed control of the conversation.

"I don't know" Carson raised his eyes to the ceiling "Lantia lass, do I have an office?"

"Of course Dr Beckett. As Chief Medical Officer of Atlantis your office is this way, follow the lights please." and as her lilting tones faded the, now familiar, trail of lights in the floor lit the way deeper into the infirmary.

"Thank you lass, but please, it's Carson."

"Sorry Carson," Lantia apologised and a door swung open ahead of them, "here we are."

Inside was an office very similar to those they had already seen, but this one had a warmer, cosier feel, well suited to the man who would occupy it. The business area up front was perfectly functional but it was immediately clear that it was in the area further back that the real work would get done.

Three soft, comfortable looking sofa's formed an open sided square, the open side facing a view over the city as spectacular as any they had seen. It was a homely, calm space where you could relax and talk freely about anything that was bothering you and it fitted Carson perfectly.

Quickly they shucked off their heavy boots, leaving them on the rack that marked the line between the functional and the comfortable areas of the office, and settled themselves on the sofas. "Well, what was it that you couldn't to discuss in public?"

"Magic" Sirius replied simply.

Carson looked confused "Huh? You might need to elaborate a little on that one."

"I wondered why some of your team would be able to hear Lantia when they aren't wizards. So I performed a spell on Jack and John and it turns out they are wizards but their magic has been bound, probably in childhood." Sirius explained.

"Wait, so the Ancient gene is also the magic gene?" Carson looked shell-shocked as he slumped back against the cushions. "But, I have the Ancient gene!"

"Oh shit Carson!" Daniel exclaimed, "of course you do. It's been a crazy day, I can't believe we forgot there are other gene carriers on the expedition."

Rodney, never one to take a back seat in anything, butted in now "We don't know for sure that it's the same gene but the three people we tested are all latent magicians..."

"Wizards!" interrupted Sirius sharply.

"Wizards, Magicians, whatever, the point is that the three people we tested all have the potential to use magic," Rodney charged ahead ignoring the look of fierce anger on Sirius' face at being called a magician. However, before his temper could escape his control Carson unknowingly headed it off.

"You said you tested three people, who else have you discussed this with?" the question was asked levelly enough but Sirius found himself much more attuned to the subtleties of tone, inflection and body language since his time with the Ancients behind the veil and he detected the hurt in the Scotsman's voice. No-one else seemed to have noticed anything though so he decided not to make a big deal about it.

"You are the first person we've come to with this," he assured the Doctor. "Lantia detected that Daniel has the..." Sirius stumbled over the unfamiliar terminology "the gene too, he's the third person I tested." He paused a moment, "Do you want me to check you for magic?"

"Wait a minute, Daniel has the gene, that's impossible, he's never shown any sign of being able to use the Ancient Tech." Carson's surprise at hearing that the archeologist had the gene briefly overwhelmed the shock of hearing that he might be a wizard.

"It's complicated, we think his magic was bound when he was travelling with his parents as a child. Lantia assures us that he should be able to hear her and my own spell confirms that he has a very powerful magical core." Sirius explained.

Carson decided to let the matter drop, the other's seemed happy with the explanation and he could run the proper tests himself to verify Lantia's findings. Instead he thought for a moment about his own situation, did he really want this, it was bad enough finding that he had the Ancient gene and being expected to use it to control the artefacts left in the city. Did he really want to find he had the potential to be a magic user too with all that that would entail.

He was about to turn down Sirius' offer when a stray memory floated through his mind. A memory of nights as a child, snuggled up against the chill of a highland winter, listening to his mother telling stories of myth and magic. Was he really about to turn down the opportunity to find out if those stories could be true, to be a part of them himself. The words came then of their own volition, "what do you need me to do?"

Rising to his feet Sirius indicated a point several feet in front of himself, "just stand there" he requested and as Carson complied he held out his arm and performed the same spell he had used on the other men earlier, "Specialis Revelio!"

At the words Carson closed his eyes and braced himself as if expecting the spell to hurt. However after a moment he cautiously opened one, then both eyes, raising his arms he looked in wonder at the tracery of green light flowing through his body. Gazing down at himself he saw how the network of filaments all came together in a ball of glowing, green light in the centre of his chest.

Looking up at Sirius with an expression of wonder on his face he asked, "Does this mean..."

"Yes it does, you're a wizard," Sirius replied to the partially formed question. "Welcome to the family"

Stumbling backwards a few steps in shock, Carson slumped back down onto the couch.

"You OK," Daniel asked after a few moments, as always the archaeologist's greater empathy picked up on Carson's sudden distress before any of the others.

At his words the Scotsman, whose breath had begun to quicken in anxiety, turned even paler and leaned forward, hanging his head between his knees, hands clenched as his chest heaved, struggling to pull in sufficient air. Rodney who was seated beside him quickly recognised the signs of a panic attack, he moved closer, one hand gripping a shoulder whilst the other rubbed firm circles on the Doctor's back as he commanded, "come on Carson, deep, slow breaths."

As everyone gathered around he waved them back' "give him some room!" before turning back to his charge, "come on Carson, you know the drill, slow down, breathe in, two, three..." The others watched in amazement as Rodney, whose one defining characteristic they had all taken to be selfishness, slowly and patiently calmed the Doctor down until finally the other man was able to sit back once more, slumping against the cushions, eyes closed in exhaustion.

As his breathing returned to normal the other men settled back into their seats, giving him a few moments space to recover his equilibrium. Suddenly Carson seemed to shake off his torpor, rubbing his large hands briskly over his face he straightened in his seat, "OK, what's next?"

Sirius looked at him carefully before carrying on, "well, you, John and Jack are all wizards with your magic bound in a fairly standard way in childhood. I can release the binding if that's what you want. A small amount of magical energy has been flowing through your body all along, releasing the binding will increase that flow so that you can begin to use magic and I can teach you how to control it." He paused briefly, looking across at Daniel who sat beside Jack nervously wringing his hands, "Daniel however is a slightly different story. Daniel's magic has been more tightly bound, all his magically energy is locked up in his magical core. I believe I can," he paused, searching for the right word, "relax the binding to allow a small trickle of his magic to begin to flow around his body. Once the magical pathways have opened up then I can release the binding completely and he can begin to learn magic." He ended with a big smile, in his teenage years he had enjoyed working with his friends to help them learn the animagus transformation, he thought he might enjoy working with these men to teach them magic just as much.

"So the question now is, do you want me to try to release the binding on your magic?" Sirius surveyed the four potential wizards before him, he felt sure he knew what Jack and John would decide, it was Carson and Daniel who were the unknown quantities. He had unloaded a lot of information onto the Doctor very quickly, the man might need some time to process it before making a decision. Then there was Daniel, he had not even been sure he wanted to know if he was a wizard, would he want to go any further?

It was Jack who spoke first, "you said that you believe you can relax the bindings on Daniel's magic, how sure are you that you can do this without harming him?"

"With you, John and Carson it's all straight-forward, it will probably be a bit of a shock to your systems but I know it can be done and I'm confident that I can do it without causing you harm. Daniel is a little different, I'm not a mediwizard, so this is not my area of expertise but I'm convinced that releasing his magic all at once would be dangerous. To suddenly have all his magic flowing through channels that have been closed since childhood would be an immense strain on his body. To relax the binding first is safer but also more difficult which is why I won't try it without medical supervision. Daniel this is entirely up to you, if you want to wait until you can get back in touch with Earth then that's fine. I would be able to provide you with an introduction to some people who could get you to St Mungo's, it's a wizarding hospital, they have professionals who could help you much better than I can." Sirius sat back, it was up to Daniel now, but Jack still had something to say he and Danny had waited a long time to be together, he was keen to start learning about magic but it was more important to him that Danny be safe.

"Danny, it might be safest to wait, we'll be back in touch with Earth eventually, I'll wait too, I want us to be able to learn this stuff together, if that means waiting a year or two then that's fine, your safety is what's important here!" Jack meant every word that he said but looking at him Daniel knew just how eager the older man was to investigate this new part of himself. He knew Jack would wait if that was what he decided but, truth to tell, Daniel was just as eager to see what he had missed out on for all those years.

"When can we start?"


End file.
